Teen’s Decade-Old Toy Drive Spreads Holiday Cheer to Sick Kids

• When 5-year-old Emily spent Christmas night in the hospital, she received a holiday gift from the Child Life team.
• The kind act inspired her to launch her own toy drive to distribute presents to kids hospitalized during the holidays.
• Emily, now 15 years old, has been spreading holiday cheer to sick kids for her 10th year now through Emily’s Awesome Toy Drive.

When Emily Meyer was only 5 years old, she was admitted to a hospital on Christmas night.

As she was recovering in her room at the Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York, a Child Life representative stopped by and handed her a Christmas present.

They tried to decline, saying that they already have some, but the representative said that all children would receive a gift.

Emily shared, “The Child Life team explained that no child should be in the hospital during the holiday season, but if they are, they should feel the joy of the holidays while they are there.”

The generosity inspired Emily to do the same. She launched her own toy drive in 2010 to help distribute presents to hospitalized kids during the holidays.

Since then, Emily’s Awesome Toy Drive has been collecting new, unwrapped gifts to distribute for about a decade.

Emily shared, “We collected about 20 or so toys the first year. Every year from then on, it just grew and grew and grew and grew. It just became this whole big thing.”

Now that Emily is 15 years old, this year will be her 10th year of spreading holiday cheer to sick kids. Even amid the pandemic, she plans to match last year’s donations of $2,500.

So she decided to start this year’s collection early in the summer season. She then started an Amazon wish list so aspiring donors have a contact-free delivery option.

The collected gifts will be sent to kids spending the holidays at Angela’s House, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, Good Samaritan, the Ronald McDonald House, Stony Brook University Hospital, and The John Theissen Foundation.

Emily is currently a sophomore at New Babylon High School in New York. The basement of their home has been the storage place for the thousands of gifts they receive as donations.

Emily’s Awesome Toy Drive has also become a family bonding activity. Her parents love helping Emily organize, wrap, and deliver the toys.

Her mom, Tara Decola, said, “When kids are able to play and use toys to distract them, it makes a stay at the hospital so much easier. It’s been amazing how it’s grown over the years and knowing that she is able to provide comfort and care to anyone ill just gives us a lot of joy as a family.”

Emily started her own toy drive when she was only 5 years old, and it has been growing strong since. It’s amazing to know how a kind act can inspire others, no matter how young, to do the same.

Source: Inspire More