Last Sunday, December 7th, a group of 11 NASH juniors went downtown to Every Child Inc. through the Every Child Club at NASH. The club is a way to encourage high school students to help and support disadvantaged children and families in our community. This time they volunteered and helped out at the 10th annual Tows for Tots toy drive.
The event is organized by local Pittsburgh tow truck companies who partner with the Marine Toys of Tots program to deliver toys to local nonprofits around Pittsburgh who support kids in need, like Every Child.
Every Child is a local nonprofit organization that provides family support and clinical care for children in foster care and adoption services.
“Every year Tows for Tots generously fills our building with toys, joy, and hope for the kids and families we serve. We are so grateful for them and all of our wonderful volunteers!” Every Child Director of Marketing and Development Julie Schrecengost said.
Tow truck operators and their families gather at the Castle Shannon VFD Firemen’s Hall the morning of the event to load the thousands of toy donations into the trucks. Then they parade over to Every Child Inc. to deliver the donations. This year over 200 trucks came filled with toys.
The volunteers got to work quickly once the trucks arrived. They helped unload trucks filled to the brim with donations and transfer them into the building. Once all the donations were brought inside, they organized and sorted through hundreds of piles and boxes of toys to get them ready to be delivered as gifts to kids.
“It was definitely a lot of hard work, but it felt good knowing I was making an impact in the community for many kids in a hard situation,” said junior Gracie Lynch.
NASH students along with other volunteers from the community were able to sort through the thousands of toys donated in just under 3 hours.
“It was so inspiring to see everyone come together for such a good cause and make a difference in the community,” junior Annie Thomas said.
Every Child emphasizes the importance of remembering this holiday season that not all kids are able to celebrate the holidays the way most of us do. We are happy to know that our hard work and service is going towards making many kids’ holiday wishes come true.
“It was so much fun sorting through all the toys and seeing people’s huge amounts of generosity for kids during the holidays,” said junior Alicia Mokube.
The Every Child Club at NASH is honored to be able to help the Every Child organization work towards their mission of building a stronger community and empowering families by providing them with services and support.
