UB Law Community Spreads Holiday Joy
The UB Law community is playing Santa for a family in need at holiday time, a make-it-merry outreach that’s fast becoming a law school tradition.
It’s part of an initiative by the University at Buffalo’s Office of Government and Community Relations, which offers individual academic units the chance at year’s end to channel their goodwill into the wider community. More than 40 UB units take part, and the law school is an enthusiastic participant every year.
The UB office partners with community organizations to identify dozens of disadvantaged families throughout Western New York for the university’s Adopt-a-Family program. The office supplies wish lists from the family, as well as the ages and genders of family members. The gifts range from toys, to clothes, to needed household items.
At the law school, this year’s project is already complete—donations collected, shopping and wrapping finished, gifts delivered to UB’s coordinating office. The law school’s point person for the initiative, Amanda Benzin, associate director of The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, says alumni donations are welcome when the holidays roll around again next year.
We asked Benzin, who coordinates the Adopt-A-Family program at UB Law, about the project.
Amanda Benzin with a generous collection of donated gifts for the university's Adopt-a-Family program.
What has led you to take on this role each year?
When I first started at UB, I was excited to see that this program existed since I was involved in a similar program when on faculty for the Theatre Arts department at Colorado Mesa University. Starting with the 2023 holiday season, I decided to step up as the school’s liaison, following the work previously done by Sara Zeitler, the law school’s former vice dean for records, registration and financial aid.
Knowing the bargain shopping skills my mom and I have, I decided to collect donations from faculty and staff at the law school, then do all the shopping, wrapping and delivering of presents to the Office of Government and Community Relations on the South Campus. While that is a lot of work, I could not do it without the help of my mom, who has been gracious enough to lend her talents and time to this very worthy cause.
How has the law school community shown its generosity in supporting this effort?
Over the past three years, including this year, we have been able to support wonderfully deserving families in Western New York. Each year I grow more appreciative of the generosity of my colleagues who help me with this endeavor. And of course, none of this would be possible without the tireless efforts and coordination of the Office of Government and Community Relations team, particularly Melissa Wood, senior assistant director of community relations.
How do you think the Adopt-a-Family program supports the law school’s engagement with the wider community?
As my husband (a non-Buffalo native but very much a Buffalonian and Western New Yorker now) always reflects to me, Buffalo is the City of Good Neighbors. The best things about Buffalo and Western New York are first the people, and a close second, the food. I am grateful to be a small cog in just one of the many wheels here in the law school, on campus and in the greater community, working to help our fellow neighbors and spread a little joy.