Toys were everywhere when we arrived at Hopelink early Monday morning. All of the toys were donated by local people and businesses over the past year, and all will be distributed to children of low-income, even homeless families over the next two days.
Each toy is assigned a point value; each point represents approximately ten dollars. Every family that goes to Hopelink for the toy distribution is given 5 points per child. A personal shopper assists the family as they browse the newly created toy store (it is in the food distribution/pantry room of the charity) full of all the donated toys for several days.
Hopelink and other charities need support more than ever. Approximately 750 families were assisted by this branch of Hopelink in 2008, 1000 families were assisted this year (2009). Donations were down; demand is up…not a good combination!
Today I was part of a small community of volunteers, giving of their time to make one day of the year special for a family in need. My niece came down and spent over four hours helping turn a mass of toys into a toy store. There were high school students, parents, grandparents, all giving of their time.
Hopelink Toy Store 2009
All day long, donations of toys and food were arriving at the door. My way of giving back, well my company (Essco – Safety Check) was to test the toys for lead and other heavy metals. I’ve been testing their toys for almost two weeks in my spare time.
Overall, we (me, my brother and other volunteers) were able to test approximately 200 new toys and children’s products. Next year we will start earlier and hope to work with other organizations to give back and provide more, free toy testing, at this very special time of year.
Happy Holiday’s
Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Thank you
Nicolas
Comment by Nicolas — December 23, 2009 @ 7:31 am
I was wondering if you plan to publish the results of your toy testing? Or maybe, results are posted on your website and I haven’t discovered them yet. Thank you for your information.
Comment by Vicki DeSmet — January 13, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Thank you for your comment. About the information that we have, i have not currently published any specific data about names upc codes and such, but general data i will make available. I have written a blog with general information about percentages of what we find from typical home inspections, but once again, no specific information on products. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. You can review http://blog.essco-safetycheck.com/2009/10/29/what-are-our-typical-findings-from-an-in-home-inspection/ for typical consumer product information. Thanks again, please keep your comments coming!
Comment by Seth Goldberg — January 21, 2010 @ 7:45 am
I just wanted to leave you a quick post to thank you for your website!
I really liked your webpage!!! Would you care whether I put up an backlink from my site to your page?
Keep up the good work! Much Thanks!
Kyle
Comment by Kyle-at-motorbikeleathers — February 7, 2010 @ 4:51 am