His Toy Store Reimagined 2020: Hear From Our Affiliates
Our hearts are bursting with gratitude and love that generous donors like you helped us exceed our giving goal this year!
In total, we have now raised $157,155 between October and December. We are so grateful for your heartfelt support in bringing holiday joy to families with toys and basic needs.
This year, His Toy Store Reimagined became a holiday fund to provide grants *directly* to affiliates. This way, they can provide much-needed resources and toys for more than 42,000 New Yorkers in need during the holiday season. However, we didn't forget that volunteering is an important part of our Christmas outreach. Many affiliates are utilizing grants to provide special gifts, celebrations, food, and other support to their communities—and many volunteers are needed to help with planning and organizing. (And, yes, you can still volunteer!)
Grants are being disbursed to our affiliates, and volunteers are getting ready to serve alongside our affiliates. Here's what our affiliates shared about why His Toy Store Reimagined is important to them, and about some recent volunteering events:
Center for All Abilities
This year, 75 children and youth from neurodiverse and/or underprivileged backgrounds will receive personalized Christmas packages! Among many holiday goodies, the packages will include materials to construct and decorate their own gingerbread house out of LEGOS. Volunteers from Exilic Presbytarian Church were recently hard at work preparing the packages. There will be a contest for the winning "gingerbread" houses. At our Zoom celebration, three prize winners will be announced, and each child will have the opportunity to share their "gingerbread" house with everyone! We are so grateful for our partnerships and for the opportunity to provide this celebratory event!
— Joanna Tan, Community Programs Director and Volunteer Coordinator, Center for All Abilities
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Youth for Christ
We'll start a brand new Christmas gift experience inside two juvenile centers where every youth resident will have the chance to not only receive a gift, but shop for gifts that they will send to their families! It’s an opportunity for the youth to provide something nice for their families that they couldn’t have imagined. We now have a chance to bring them together in this small way.
—Phillip Vellon, Director, Juvenile Justice Ministry
Recovery House of Worship Brooklyn
I just wanted to send along a HUGE thank you for your contributions, your help with preparation and in the distribution for our first curbside Thanksgiving this year. With all your support, prayers and encouragement, we were able to provide Thanksgiving meals for 383 people last week! Other brothers and sisters benefited from leftovers at our food distribution on Friday and Saturday. We thank God for each of you and trust that you were blessed being with us. Know that you blessed so so many—the other volunteers, the members of RHOW, the surrounding community, and the dear folks who came.
— Zac Martin, Pastor of Justice and Outreach
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We will be able to meet the unique needs of our Mott Haven neighborhood—specifically the need to celebrate the holidays in grand style! Thanksgiving and Christmas meals will be served from a food truck, backpacks and shoeboxes filled with gifts will be distributed, and gift cards will be provided for families to purchase presents and groceries.
— Andrew Mann, Director
Cru Inner City
There is a new segment of our community now considered 'The New Poor.' Many homes have never been without bread winners and have been out of work for weeks or months. So Cru Inner City needed help reach hurting New York families through Boxes of Love® this Thanksgiving to provide family meals, and through our Yankee Holiday Food Drive to provide Christmas toys and food.
— Dan Minell, City Director
Thank you for helping us make this Christmas a Christmas of Hope!
His Toy Store Reimagined design by David Sankey. Video by Andrew Walker.