How to Help: Host a Toy Drive

by Karleen Hubbard
HSP Intern

This Christmas season, we hope to give the children of low-income families the opportunity to experience the joy of waking up to presents under the tree on Christmas morning. HSP's goal this holiday season is to serve over 800 children in the area, each of whom will receive at least three Christmas gifts.

There are several ways in which our volunteers can make this happen for the needy children we serve. The first is the Giving Tree, a way to fulfill the wish lists of the children in our program. When sponsoring a Giving Tree child, you will be given a name and age and asked to fulfill at least one gift on the list. After wrapping your gifts, you may bring them to HSP, where we will give them to the child.


Toy drives are another helpful way to give these children a happy holiday, and a great fit for larger groups. Toys can be collected for ages 3-15, with our age group of 8-15 (we help brothers and sisters up to 15 at Christmas) being our biggest need. You may narrow your collection by choosing a specific age group or gender. The collected toys may be dropped off at our site in Carol Stream, where they will be sorted by our volunteers to fit a specific age, gender, or fulfill a wish list item.

Any additional toys we receive can be put away and used in future months for the Children's Birthday Project, which gives a needy child a 25 pound package of gifts each year on their birthday.

So don't be shy in collecting!

For more detailed information, or to let us know you would like to participate, feel free to contact us.

Karleen & the HSP Staff