Today was an amazing day delivering 8,989 toy donations to children in hospitals throughout the Puget Sound.
We had delivered toys to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital last Thursday, so our focus today was Seattle Children’s Hospital, and St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale.
Our group met early at "Kidzz Helping Kidzz headquarters" at 7:30 AM. We reviewed our itinerary and quickly headed off in three cars and a 26 foot U-Haul filled with toy donations.
When I was getting into the U-Haul, I realized I was still wearing my slippers. I ran back to the house and quickly put on shoes.
With the Bremerton / Seattle ferry being down to just one boat we decided to leave early. We were first in line which was a huge relief.
The ferry ride was quick and the boat was virtually empty. We had fun sharing stories of prior Christmas donation deliveries to children in hospitals. Then spent time reviewing our schedule just in case anyone got lost.
After driving off the ferry, we met up with American Medical Response (AMR) EMT's to catch an ambulance ride and be personally escorted to Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Zachary got to sit in the front seat and we had four kids ride in the back. One of our kids got strapped in the gurney! They had a blast!
We arrived to Seattle Children’s Hospital promptly at 10:30 AM, and we were able to offload around 4,000 - 4,500 donate toys for Christmas in under an hour.
This is the fastest time we have ever delivered so many Christmas toy donations! All of our Christmas gift donations were in large boxes, so this helped with our efficiency.
Our kids and volunteers offloaded every stuffed toy donation box, and we were greeted by a Fox Q13 Seattle news reporter.
They interviewed Zachary and captured us offloading the Christmas toy donations from the truck.
We then headed off to St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale. We arrived promptly at 2:00 PM, and were greeted by friendly Leadership and staff.
Their new President greeted us and all of his Leadership staff helped us offload items from the truck. We brought the boxed Christmas gift donations to their very large Christmas tree in the lobby.
There were so many toy donations around the Christmas tree you could only see the top half of the tree!
Leadership President honored Zachary for his amazing work, and presented him and the other Kidzz Helping Kidzz Advisory Board members with gifts.
Zach received a beautiful commemorative coin and was invited to present at an upcoming staff meeting for the Leadership team there at the hospital.
Then we were interviewed by a reporter for the Kitsap Sun. She said that she was inspired by our organization and that her article would appear in the newspaper this weekend.
On our way out of the Hospital, Starbucks treated our entire team to hot chocolate. We then headed home.
The kids talked non stop as they reflected on their day. It was certainly memorable for us all. It is a true gift to be able to give to others in this way!
We greatly appreciate the support of our community! Please consider supporting Kidzz Helping Kidzz by donating toys, time or money to our cause.