A Dark and Stormy Night at Children of the City

Here is a great story about how sometimes things don't always go our way. The original story was also posted by another one of our Children of the City board members, Julia Masi.

"As the days grow shorter and darker, it’s wise to live by Murphy’s Law. Children of the City’s annual toy drive made a wrong turn onto an obstacle course last Monday when scheduling problems caused a benefactor to push back the delivery date on a pledge for 300 toys," said Masi.

Children of the City's Daniel Ramos had worked very hard on this year's toy drive -- securing donations and organizing a series of gift wrapping events that started last Wednesday. Most of the toys were scheduled to arrive by Thursday, so on Friday he arranged for a dozen volunteers from NYCares, along with Board Members like me, who were supposed to help contribute the toys. Daniel had everything planned so that each volunteer would have plenty to do at each event.

But Mother Nature had other plans. Grey skies and stormy clouds caused further delays on Thursday, as snow, sleet and rain hit the tri-states. Not even half of the deliveries made it to our headquarters that night. Although only a few volunteers bailed out of we had 60 willing and able gift wrappers from Volunteer NYC, Old Navy, and several high school students, who patiently waited as a few of the toys trickled in.

The organizers tried tricks like stalling and feeding the gang with a buffet of buffalo wings and all the extras. Plus they told favorite home visit anecdotes. But all said, things were looking pretty bad until I asked everyone to come outside and help.

Our Basile family car had become Santa’s sleigh with 12 Razor scooters and a number of hot toys purchased by my very generous friends, relatives and The Basile Group business associates. All the volunteers were so excited while they got busy wrapping Hannah Montana, Barbie and Bratz dolls.

In fact, I would love tho thank everyone who was generous enough to donate toys to me. You really saved the day! Sometimes you don't realize how much of an effect you have. I'm here to tell you that your generousity was a blessing for the volunteers, Children of the City and especially all of the children that were fortunate enough to receive your gifts.

To read Julia's blog post, go to: Children's Charities

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