Yesterday I had the privilege of taking a whole lot of toys up to the Center for Women in Transition in Champaign. The center provides housing and other services to Women and Children that have been dislocated or are in need of shelter for a variety of reasons. It is a very worthwhile charity doing good things and helping out women and children in need. If you would like to know more about the center, visit their website at http://www.cuhomeless.com/.
Between June2010 – July 2011, the center has housed 51 women and 52 children who were homeless as well as 88 women and 93 children who needed shelter from domestic violence.
We decided to donate toys to the Center this year for a several reasons.
1. Trish and I have both been single parents raising young children on our own in the past and know what it is like to be alone with children. I consider myself very fortunate however to have had a good job, steady income and a home of my own as a single parent and I never had to worry about where my child was going to sleep, what he was going to eat or if he was going to be safe from harm. The women that the Center provides for are not as fortunate as I was. I can’t even imagine what these children’s lives have been like. I do however remember what it was like to have to help my child deal with trauma and grieve.
2. Our church challenged us to participate in the Radical Experiment. One part of the Radical Experiment is to sacrifice your money for a specific purpose. Now Trish and I are by no means well off. In fact, with the way the economy has been over the last few years, being a local, independent Toy Store has been quite challenging in today’s retail environment when competing against all the big box chain stores and the even bigger Goliath called Amazon. I really don’t know what the future for our little toy store will be. We still however, have more than we need and enough to share as well. Especially when sharing with young children who need the power of positive playthings and we have the toys that can encourage, inspire and activate their little imaginations.
3. Having a Master’s Degree in Technology, I’ve been fascinated with the whole social networking thing. In the last month I watched another local retailer grow 1000 new Facebook fans on their page through a contest where someone was going to win something from their store. I wondered if Bee ActiveToys Facebook page would gain new fans, not by giving anything away to the fans but by giving away to a charity and so we put it on Facebook that we would make a $1 donation in toys for every new “like” we received. I didn’t want my customers to pay anything for the donation. I just wanted them to like our page and we would donate $1. Trish and I had already decided to make a donation no matter how many likes we received. We received 224 new likes to our Facebook page and I lost count of all the likes we had on all of our different postings about our donation.
So those were the reasons I wanted to help out one of our local charities, now let’s talk about what all we donated for these kids to play with, because I really am a kid at heart and for me it is all about playing with our toys. I handpicked toys that would be fun for these children to play with but would also benefit the children’s growth and development as well.
For infants there is the following: Alex Toys Mix N Max Yum Yum Teether, Peek & Stack cups, Green Toys Stacker, Educo Double Bubble bead maze, Baby Face Orchestra, Ambi Toys Lock a Block, Tiny Love Tummy Time Fun, Ambi Toys Focus Pocus, Beado, Educo Spring-A-Ling and Melissa & Doug Toolbox Fill and Spill.
For Pre-school or early elementary aged kids: Tumble Tree Timbers, Playmobil Animal Nursery, Illini Football Guys, Melissa & Doug Cowgirl, Queen, Pirate, King and Knight Puppets, 2 Different Sticky Mosaics, Melissa & Doug Chef and Train Engineer Role Play Set, ZipBin Wheelies playmat and carry case, Safari toys Rainforest, River, Horse, and Monkeys & Apes Toobs, Melissa & Doug Wooden Doughnuts and Bake & Serve Brownies, North American Bear Company Hansel and Gretel Pop Up Cloth Playsets.
Kids need and love puzzles so there was: Educo Emergency Vehicles and Wild Animals peg puzzle, Melissa & Doug Rain Forest, Children of the World, Under the Sea floor puzzles, Shark, seaside stallions and other 100pc and 500 pc puzzles, Curious George Mood Puzzle, plus several wire puzzles and Thinkfuns Zig-Zag Knot to challenge the older kids.
Everyone likes to play games, they now have: Blue Orange Games Trigger, Spot It, and Fastrack, Domino Express, Mastermind Animal Towers, Spongebob Mastermind Towers, Chimp & Zees Dinosaur Whirl, Dinosaur Train Pop n’ Race, Thinkfuns Zingo and Smart Mouth, Goliath Games Rolit Classic, Hooey, Rats, Slap Dragon, Swap!, and 99 or Bust card games, Toss up! Dice game, and BANANAGRAMS!
And last but not least we had to throw in 6 cute stuffed animals as well.
So there you have it. I hope the kids that the Center for Women in Transition helps out get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of playing with all of these items. It was and is wonderful to be able to share our toys with these children. Thank you everybody for reading and following along as we made this donation.
In Memory of Edward Thomas King (July 28, 1959-Aug. 13, 2002) and Diane Arnold Curry (March 13, 1970 – Dec. 14, 2002)
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