October was another exciting month for us as we gear up for our 2023 toy drive! We intend to provide over 5,000 new, unused toy donations to brighten the lives of ill children ages 2-17 at St. Michael Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, and St. Anthony Hospital.
But in order to brighten those lives, we want to make sure the lives of our volunteers are brightened, too. One way is by recognizing our rising stars. For October, our Kidzz Helping Kidzz Rising Star Youth award goes to Leighton Hill.
Leighton joined our Kidzz Helping Kidzz Advisory Board in 2019. During our toy drive season, Leighton has earned the title of ‘QA Director’.
He always makes sure our toy collection boxes meet the standards set forth by the Advisory Board of Kidzz Helping Kidzz and sends them back for ‘processing’ if they fall short of expectation.
He also brings great enthusiasm and humor to our work! For example, this is how he nicely decorated his brother while playing the building towers game.
When Leighton is not working as an Advocate for Kidzz Helping Kidzz, he can be found volunteering for Hillcrest Church in the media/audio/video department or participating in sports such as track, basketball, and baseball. Leighton is part of the Highly Capable program at his school and is an Honor Society member.
The Kidzz Helping Kidzz organization seeks toy donations that are new and unused that can be given to very ill children who are in the hospital and unable to be home for Christmas.
Children who come into the emergency department and outpatient clinics also receive these toys. We have selected the top hospitals for which any kid who lives in Kitsap County will likely receive care.
This month we received a large donation of 157 stuffed animal toys from Kristin and Noah Moore of Bremerton. These adorable stuffed animals came from the store Wild Birds Unlimited in Gig Harbor.
Noah’s dad owned this business and recently retired. The family wanted to make a difference in the lives of ill children this holiday season by donating the toys to Kidzz Helping Kidzz! Kristin and Noah, your generous donation will brighten the lives of so many children in the hospital!
We also met with the leaders of the local chapter of Hope worldwide Scouts to help us with our upcoming toy drive. Hope Scouts is a family community engagement program that creates opportunities for children and their parents to support local programs aimed at helping kids in need.
Hope worldwide Scouts was founded by volunteers who wish to create opportunities for students in kindergarten through 8th grade to contribute to their community in meaningful ways. This program enables children to impact those in need while instilling a commitment to service in their hearts.
Under the supervision of their Scout Leaders, troops routinely support local programs and distinguish themselves by their passionate service. We look forward to having the Hope Scouts join our toy drive efforts this year!
We just had our first toy collection box decorating party where we put new posters and signs on our boxes. The kids from our Advisory Board showed up and brought friends to the party.
Our warehouse space filled up quickly with the 102 toy collection boxes as our crew worked hard.
We had one pile of boxes that needed to be “retired” from lots of use over the years. Noah, Jensen and others formed our first “demolition workgroup” as seen in the video below...
Constant sounds of packaging tape being pulled off roles to cover the boxes could be heard for hours.
There was lots of laughter as some kids played in the boxes and lots of cheering as we completed the work!
After hours of work the Kidzz Helping Kidzz Advisory Board managed to make 102 BEAUTIFUL toy drive collection boxes!
These toy drive collection boxes will be distributed on Friday, November 17 throughout Kitsap County to local businesses, schools, churches, and official county offices. Click here to see a Map of the toy donation drop off locations.
We could not have done this important work to date without our amazing Kidzz Helping Kidzz Advisory Board composed of 15 kids ages 10-17.
These kids have had a key role in planning our toy drive and leading the activities of our organization as we work to brighten lives of thousands of children in the hospital during the holiday season.
We are grateful for the donation of warehouse and storage space this year that was provided by St. Michael Medical Center and United Moving and Storage.
We could not do this important work without the assistance of these amazing organizations!
Feel free to give a shout out to your favorite organization in the Comments section below...
Kitsap Computing Seniors (KCS)... and of course, Kidzz Helping Kidzz! :)