Christmas Toy Drive

I would like to personally thank all of our family and friends who helped out this year in sharing the Christmas spirit through our first, and hopefully, annual toy drive. We were able to help bring toys to some 200 children that might not have otherwise received christmas presents.

When we first thought of this idea, it never crossed our minds that we would have collected as much as we did. We thought that only a few close friends would consider donating money. Little did we realize the generosity of our family and friends. We managed to collect approximately $1000 that went entirely to buying presents for these wonderful children.

The two places that we chose to help this year were Little Flower Children's Services and Danbury Family Aid. Please follow the links to see the services that these two organizations provide to our communities and children. The reason I chose these two places is; although other, more publicly known toy drives are a worthwhile cause, I was seeking to find organizations that were not receiving presents from another source. Many places I contacted to donate gifts had informed me that our presents would be in addition to gifts they would receive from other sources. I did not wish to supplement other donations but rather help those children who might not have otherwise received presents.

On Friday, December 20th, Lorraine Bonnet and I went to the Jamaica, NY campus of Little Flower Children's Services for their Christmas party. There was a Santa on stage and children everywhere. We helped pass out presents to all the children there. There were children there of all ages, babies, barely a few months old through teenagers, all eager to come on stage, give Santa a hug and receive their Christmas present. All in all, there were approximately 150 children there. It was a pleasure to hand out the toys and see the looks on the children's faces.

The following day, Lorraine, Dave Cheng and myself drove up to Danbury, CT to Danbury Family Aid. Due to the sensitive nature of the situations that the children there find themselves in, we were, understandably, not allowed to take any pictures, though we truly wish we could have. It has been a long time since I have met such wonderful, loving children. We met them in their gym, inside a Church, where we set up all the presents. From the second that we walked in, we could see the excitement in their eyes. They would eagerly run up to us asking, "Are those for us?" As we handed out the toys, they had time to unwrap them and actually play with them there. This is something we did not have an opportunity to see the day before. It was especially heart-warming to see the children enjoy the small tokens that we could offer them. Soon the gymnasium was filled with echoes of laughter and the overwhelming, heart touching sounds of children simply having fun.

While the children played, we were given a tour of their facilities. Along the way we also heard some of the circumstances of how the children found their way there. We had known that Danbury Family Aid helped victims of domestic violence but, we had never imagined the gut-wrenching stories that they may have had. I was truly moved by the whole experience and will do my best to make sure that our toy drive will become an annual event. Their facilities were amazing, the children lived in very warm, loving, home-like environments. (Lorraine, Dave and myself were very jealous at times. :) ) It was amazing that almost all the work they have done to their buildings are all the result of volunteer work (electricians, carpenters, construction workers) and donations.

After the tour, we returned to the children to join them for Pizza. We had the pleasure of meeting a wonderfully talented girl who graced us with her singing, a song she had written herself. Dave embarassed himself playing basketball with some of the children. Unfortunately, we had to leave but none of us really wanted to, we wanted to stay to hang out and play with the children.

We truly could not have done this without the help of all our family and friends. I wish I could pass along the feelings we walked away with after handing out the presents or the look on their smiling faces, but I can not. I can only say that I have never felt better about doing anything in my life. Thank you all once again, and next year perhaps some of you can come along and see those wonderful smiling faces for yourselves.


The presents that we bought include but were not limited to:
-Art Sets
-Barbie Dolls
-Action Figures
-Walkmans
-WalkieTalkies
-R/C Cars
-Cars/Airplanes/Motorcycles
-Beauty Sets
-Manicure Sets
-Sports Sets
-Jewelry
-Plush Animals
-Legos

Click on the Links below to see some pictures.
Presents
Presents
Presents
Presents
Presents
Presents
LittleFlower
LittleFlower
LittleFlower

In addition, I would personally like to thank Lorraine Bonnet and David Cheng who were instrumental in collecting much of the money. Especially Lorraine who did almost all of the shopping!
Also, I would like to thank Lorraine, Chris M., Missy, Dave and Emlyn who helped wrap many of the presents! Once again, special thanks to Lorraine who stayed up with me to 3 in the morning wrapping all the presents we had left.

Thanks again to everyone who donated. We really appreciate it!
-Harry Liu



For more information please feel free to email me.

P.S. The leftover presents were donated to Toys for Tots.