Black Friday is on the horizon, followed by Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.
As Tucsonans gear up for shopping, local nonprofits request that they consider adding children in need to their lists — or, alternatively, volunteering to brighten their holiday season.
Aviva Children’s Services is seeking donations of time, talent, toys and treasure to provide holiday gifts for more than 2,000 children involved in the foster care system. Each child will receive two toys along with a handmade gift (quilt, blanket, pillow case, stuffed animal or pajamas); a stocking filled with stocking stuffers; a book or puzzle; and other items personalized to the child.
“We really want to create normalcy for these kids. Even with all of the different types of holidays that people celebrate, there is lots of giving and receiving at this time of year. The kids may not be with their typical family unit, but we want to make it as normal as possible,” said Olivia Bruntmyer, engagement coordinator with Aviva Children’s Services.
People are also reading…
A subsidiary of the Easterseals Blake Foundation, Aviva serves children from newborn to age 18 who are in foster and kinship care through the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS). Foster care includes children in traditional and group homes, while kinship care is comprised of extended family members such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, or a family friend who has a relationship to the child.
In 2023, about 58 percent of children in Arizona foster care utilized kinship placements, according to DCS.
Kinship placements — many of which occur on short notice — generally receive half the monthly stipend ($300 per month) that licensed foster caregivers receive for a child, along with fewer resources.
“Typically these extended family members may not have the monetary support that they need to provide toys and gifts for the kids during the holidays. We want to make sure they can give the children the holiday they deserve,” Bruntmyer said.
Long-time volunteer Karen Coyne, 72, has been making holidays happen for foster children for eight years. Coyne is a member of Aviva Divas, an auxiliary organization that supports Aviva through sewing and quilting. The group makes blankets, quilts, stockings and other items for the children; they also sell handmade wares at an annual sale and through a small shop at Aviva to provide money to buy toys.
Coyne and other volunteers also offer hands-on support at the annual Holiday Toy Distribution, which will take place Dec. 9 through 12 in the gymnasium at Christ Presbyterian Church, 6565 E Broadway. Coyne said the gym virtually transforms into a “Santa’s Workshop” so that DCS case workers and foster and kinship families can come pick up toys and gifts for the children.
Bruntmyer encourages donors to deliver toys directly to the distribution when possible in order to see the scope of the event.
“It is just an absolutely amazing sight: You have to see it to understand. You just can’t imagine. We set it all up on Monday and by Friday it is all gone. It is so heartwarming. We have such an ugly society right now with so much hate and you go in there and see all these people and organizations giving their time and energy because they know the kids are the future,” Coyne said.
Supporters of the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Toy Drive are also working to make the season merry for kids who are displaced during the holidays.
For the 14th consecutive year, the drive will collect new, unwrapped toys, books and gift cards for children hospitalized at Banner-Diamond Children’s Medical Center and their families. Donations can be dropped at Northwest YMCA, 7770 N. Shannon Road by Dec. 14; they will also be accepted at Buckelew Farm Christmas Tree Lots citywide.
Roxanna Green spearheads the drive each year in memory of her daughter. She and her husband, John, and their son, Dallas, hope to deliver $10,000 worth of toys to the hospital for distribution through the Child Life Center.
“It really means a lot to so many children who have to spend the holidays in the hospital. Without the help of donations like this to the Child Life Center, many of these kids who are less fortunate wouldn’t have a nice Hanukkah or Christmas,” Roxanna said.
Roxanna said that the toy drive has become a holiday tradition for her family and many in the community and every year she is amazed by the generosity of Tucsonans.
“It keeps Christina’s giving spirit alive. She was always a giver and loved to give back. She always felt blessed to have a good life and wanted to do things for others who didn’t have as much as she had, which is pretty wise for a little kid,” Roxanna said.
