Children of the City Toy Drive

This last weekend included the last night of gift wrapping parties for the Children of the City Toy Drive. It's been a great week - wrapping presents and giving out the gifts. We still will be giving out more presents this week. Some of the neediest families from the younger group that came in on Saturday will be able to pick up an additional presents, and the group will also be distributing more toys to after school kids this next Wednesday. Saturday was amazing! It was packed. The upstairs session included the 8-14 group of kids, while ages 2- 7 were downstairs.
As you can see, we got some great photos too! It was wonderful to see how good people felt by participating.

I spoke briefly with the charity's Executive Director Joyce Mattera who said that this has been a powerful time. She mentioned that the first floor fellowship hall was filled with parents and a woman who represented State Farm was there to speak with them. The parents were all talking about their challenges and getting encouragement, advice and much needed support from her, plus our staff, who all hail from silimlar backgrounds.

Some time this week we will know how many toys were raised, how many kids benefitted, and how many volunteers we had.

People who are interested in helping out or donating can go to ChildrenoftheCity.org