Richard Oliver wanted to give cell phones to homeless children.

So, he and his wife spent one week searching the streets of Weatherford for homeless children in need of cell phones and found 12 children he wanted to offer the phones to, Oliver said.

Oliver, assistant director of facilities for Housing & Residence Life, has since been collecting cell phones for children and families through Staff Assembly, he said.

According to its website, Staff Assembly consists of university staff members from all departments on campus and meets once monthly to discuss issues affecting staff.

Staff Assembly is conducting the used cell phone drive so that children and families without a phone would be able to call emergency services.

Oliver said he had no specific reason for wanting to collect the cell phones other than that he just wanted to help out. His position as Staff Assembly’s chair of the Community Service Committee helped him do that.

Staff Assembly member Sheri Milhollin said Staff Assembly increased community involvement to celebrate TCU’s 100th anniversary in Fort Worth.

Oliver said a coat drive, cell phone drive, Halloween candy collection and toy drive have been planned for the semester.

Milhollin, who works as the ID card services coordinator, said the Community Service Committee was working to create a service project for members of Staff Assembly and the university community to engage in each month. This was the first semester this many service events have been undertaken, she said.

The committee planned to include the same amount of projects for next semester as well, Milhollin said.

Co-chair of the coat drive and member of the Community Service Committee Betty Nance said that having so many events has allowed staff members to become more involved in the university community.

“I’m hoping we can do a lot with this,” she said.

Milhollin said the increased number of projects allowed staff members to get more acquainted with one another.

She said faculty, staff and students can drop off cell phones at the University Recreation Center on Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. during Staff Assembly’s At the Staff Water Cooler event.

According to the website, the event will offer free flu shots, snacks, beverages and an opportunity for staff members to socialize.

Nance, an administrative assistant for the department of modern language studies, said coats and candy could be dropped off during the event as well.

Drop boxes for coats would also be in the library, the Moudy building, Scharbauer Hall and Residential Services. The committee members are trying to collect as many coats as possible by Nov. 30, but the collection would be ongoing, she said.

All of the coats the committee members collected would be donated to Kirkpatrick Middle School, Nance said. The committee members want to collect 300 to 500 coats to satisfy the needs of the students enrolled at the school.

She said the committee would give any coats left over from the drive to another organization, which will be determined later.

Oliver said that in addition to the coat collection, the committee members planned to host a toy drive for underprivileged children during the holiday season.

Toys could be brought to the At the Staff Water Cooler event as well, Oliver said. Other drop-off locations would be announced at a later date.