Tempe toy drive hopes for last-minute donations
21.05.12
Last year, Emily Nelson’s 4-year-old daughter, Frankie, reached for a cherubic-looking baby doll while the family was shopping.
Frankie asked mommy if she could please, please, please take the baby home to take care of her. Nelson said it was tough to say no to the sweet request of her little girl with saucer-size eyes.
But Frankie’s baby-doll collection was getting pretty big.
“I thought, ‘Another one?’ ” Nelson said, chuckling as she retold the story. “I told her, ‘Well, maybe we should wait to see what Santa brings you.’ “
Just then, an awful thought crossed Nelson’s mind.
“I had sort of that moment,” she said. “I thought about all the parents who can’t afford to buy gifts for their kids. I thought about all the little girls who didn’t even get one baby doll.”
That was the inspiration for Nelson asking her supervisor at Tempe’s Pyle Adult Recreation Center if they could host a holiday toy drive for families struggling to make ends meet. Her supervisor obliged and “Pyle’s Christmas Toy Drive” was born.
Source: Tucson Citizen