BALTIMORE — Tuesday night, the kids at Lansdowne Elementary School got to pick out toys ahead of the Christmas holiday.
"These children are amazing first of all, and they are so excited I love it."
All thanks to a partnership between the Preston Mitchum Foundation, Jimmy The Boxer, Next Day Floors and others who donated the mountain of gifts.
The kids searched every table to find what toys they wanted to play with, or what stuffed animals they could collect.
“Everybody has brought a little bit of this and a little bit of that, whatever people wanted. It was new, gently used. Hey some of those gently used toys look pretty good, I wish I was a kid again, I'd be getting some of this.”
Doreen Luers says she learned about the toy drive and came to pick out some gifts for her son.
She says she left him at home so the toys could be a surprise come Christmas morning.
Doreen says she thinks it's amazing for these organizations to have a toy drive right at the school so all of the families can have toys for their kids this Christmas.
“This is such a blessing. It is such a blessing to so many for so many children and so many families. There are so many kids. I think every child should grow up having at least one gift under the tree so it’s amazing," says Doreen.
Bonnie Riddle with Next Day Floors says it means a lot for her organization to be involved.
She says she knows the feeling of not having anything under the Christmas tree and how it can impact a child.
She continued to say by being involved in events like this toy drive, it makes her feel amazing being able to help even just one family have a better holiday.
“Its always important to give back no matter what time of year, but we seem to always feel the greatest need during Christmas holidays because everybody is about family and that gift giving and it really hurts your heart to know that there is a child that may never get anything underneath their tree. So whatever we can do to make sure that a kid gets something, that's what it’s all about.” says Bonnie
Each family also got to put their name in a raffle for a chance to win a new bike.
