Preparing for the Toy Drive Rachelle Kim (12th Grade, River Dell High School)
This year, with the support of Give Chances, I decided to do my best to put together a Christmas/Holiday season toy drive for the students. At first, it was just a random thought that popped into my head after thinking about possible things to do for the students, when I came to the conclusion that a toy drive would be something fun to attempt. After the idea was approved, I started letting the people around me know that I was collecting gifts for the students, and while I managed to get a couple of boxes on my own, Give Chances furthered my attempts by receiving giant donations from a local church, and by allowing me to reach out to other volunteers, even more donations were able to be funded. The preparation itself took some time. After the materials had been collected, I made individual gift bags for each student that would eventually get handed out. I made sure to include all of the items that were donated and at the end, only a couple of boxes remained as extras. I’m glad the students were so happy, which made putting this together so fun and memorable for me. I hope the volunteers that helped out as well, enjoyed their time too. A fellow volunteer, Deborah Choi, even helped me collect money to go grocery shopping for some extra food to donate. In the addition of a clothing and food drive, the gifts were safely delivered to every student’s house.