Raising teens and and a precocious 11 year-old (seriously, with 3 older siblings, how could she not be?) we've weeded through and donated many of their toys to various neighborhood fundraisers or local charities, here in New Jersey, over the years.
My parents bought a backyard playhouse for my oldest, when I was expecting our middle girl (because, I still use my pregnancies as a timeline), and my husband insisted we "do something with it" since my youngest couldn't fit inside it any longer.
We cleaned it up, put it to the curb, then helped a couple load it up into their truck and take it home for their grand kids to play with.
It made letting go of it -- not to mention, ALL those memories of mud pies and onion grass soup -- a little easier to know that our old playhouse would be put to good use...all over again.
I was contacted by the representatives of Second Chance Toys (started by a teenage girl in Mountainside, New Jersey), that rescues thrown away plastic toys, cleans them and then redistributes them to children in need.
They've asked that we help expand their reach nationally in an effort to help needy kids all across the country.
Here's their story:
Second Chance Toys was started by then high school student, Sasha Lipton, who was tired of seeing beautiful plastic toys on the curb on garbage day. It upset her to think that these perfectly good toys were being thrown away when at the same time there were so many kids in the same and other neighborhoods who couldn’t afford to have toys. She began collecting them one at a time with her mom. Soon she filled her basement with them! She cleaned them off and donated them to local churches, food pantries, and children’s organizations.
That’s how the idea was born. It was so simple in nature. So enormous – and admirable in what it aimed to accomplish. And all from a child herself who was young enough to still have a clear memory of just how important a role toys played in her life.
Over the years, Sasha (now a college graduate) would share her story with people, and they would help. She was even able to get employees at Kohl’s interested in cleaning the toys as part of their employee volunteer efforts. And her and her family were able to get 1-800-Got-Junk interested as well – they now transport all the toys.
This small organization has redistributed more than 100,000 toys throughout the northeast – all through the grassroots efforts of this teenager, Sasha Lipton.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SECOND CHANCE TOYS: visit Second Chance Toys on Facebook or follow @SecondChanceToy on Twitter.
© 2003 - 2012 This Full House
In addition to finding out ways to donate your children’s gently used toys, if you think you could mobilize your church, school or a local company (like your bank, workplace, library, or gym) to become a toy drop off point in December and April when Second Hand Toys holds drives, please contact them at: http://www.secondchancetoys.org/contact-us
