As fans filter into Floyd Stadium for this Friday’s 7 p.m. football game between MTSU and rival Western Kentucky, they’ll have an opportunity to do something wonderful for underprivileged children.

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The 10 members of business education professor Virginia Hemby’s Meeting, Event, Exhibition and Convention Management class will present “Toys for Tots and Chocolate That’s Hot” at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in the yard beside the Emmett and Rose Kennon Sports Hall of Fame, 1320 Greenland Drive in Murfreesboro.

This drop-off station will accept either new toys or monetary donations to buy toys to distribute to needy youngsters during the upcoming Hanukkah and Christmas seasons.

A second drop-off station also will be available in Walnut Grove, the traditional tailgating area between Peck Hall and the rear of the Cope Administration Building, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Free hot chocolate, provided by MT Dining, will be available at both locations.

All donations will be given to Middle Tennessee Toys for Tots, a local campaign of the not-for-profit Toys for Tots program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

“We thought Toys for Tots would be just a great way to give back to the community,” said Mitch Kells, a senior advertising major from Norwood, Minnesota.

In planning their strategy, the students decided that partnering with the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center would be beneficial, especially since the Nov. 2 game also is the annual Salute to Veterans and Armed Forces game.

Dr. Virginia Hemby

“We wanted to do something where there would be a lot of people there already, so we wouldn’t have to fight that issue,” said Sierra Franz, a senior corporate communications major from Smyrna, Tennessee.

In addition to the veterans’ center, the MTSU Department of Marketing and MT Engage, a university program designed to get students actively involved in a culture of learning through high-impact classroom methodologies and beyond-the-classroom experiences, are supporting the event.

Other MTSU students participating in the class project are Angela Beltran, Martavious Carpenter, Megan Ski Hollingsworth, Haley McCanless, Abbie Sweat, Andrew White, Jamarcus Yarbrough and Garrett York.

For more information, contact Franz at sf3k@mtmail.mtsu.edu or Hemby at 615-898-2369 or virginia.hemby-grubb@mtsu.edu.

— Gina Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)