A great big thank you to all who helped support this year’s Care ‘n Share Toy Drive at the San Diego County Fair. To date we have distributed 14,189 new and gently used stuffed animals. By my math if you count the smiles on the faces of recipient children in the region plus the smiles in the hearts of the donors themselves and those who smiled at the sight of the generosity of others at the Fair, that is well over 30,000 smiles! In a project this size no role is too small, each person is important, and we could not have done it without you!
Please share the pride and delight in knowing we’ve distributed the stuffed animal donations to a wide variety of outstanding organizations:
- 5,675 to Promises2Kids
- 5,598 to Foundation for the Children of the Californias / Hospital Infantil
- 2,006 to San Diego Police Dept Southeastern Division Juvenile Services Unit
- 465 to Rady Children’s Hospital Audiology Dept
- 200 to Dignity Delivery
- 195 to Escondido Rotary Club for 1000 Smiles Project
- 25 to Angels Foster Care
- 25 to San Diego Uptown Rotary Club
We’ve also contributed three car loads of new and gently used games and toys to Assistance League North Coast Thrift Shop, and we have an additional 500 stuffed animals set aside for distribution at the holidays.
So many did so much to help make 2017 a banner year! Our distributions were almost twice what they were last year, thanks to you. For all involved, a big THANK YOU is extended for the pro-bono graphic design and printing and collection boxes and website design, and for the many hours spent sharing our story at the big wooden boxes and in the booth at the San Diego County Fair, and for delivering and maintaining the collection boxes at the 50+ library locations, and for sorting daily the seemingly endless bags of 15,000+ donations, and for helping decorate the Care ‘n Share booth, and for loading and driving the delivery truck, and for recruiting our wonderful volunteers, and for doing all of the other little things that helped make this such a tremendous success!