This past December, United Way teamed up with Toys for the Holiday in partnership with Gifts In Kind, The Toy Bank, and The Toy Industry Foundation to donate brand new toys for 4000 New Orleans youngsters for the 2006 Holiday Season.  Together, these organizations distributed these toys to non-profit agencies for their own distributions.

Some of the participating non-profit agencies included Common Ground’s Lower Ninth Ward Project, Emergency Communities, REJOICE, Inc., and Total Community Action.

Common Ground’s Lower Ninth Ward Project held a holiday celebration attended by more than 100 families. The Lower Ninth Ward is markedly further behind other sections of the city in the recovery process; to date, there are fewer than ten businesses open and approximately ten percent of the pre-storm population has returned.  Common Ground’s Lower Ninth Ward Project has cleaned and gutted more than 1,200 houses throughout the city. Their distribution center continues to support upwards of 800 people every week.

On December 17th, Emergency Communities invited families from all over Southern Plaquemines Parish to visit the distribution center at Y Café in Buras.  In addition to providing a selection of gifts for parents to select, volunteers set up a gift-wrapping station and assisted parents with wrapping the toys.  Emergency Communities was able to distribute toys, books and games to more than six hundred children and nearly two hundred families.

Through The Toy Industry Foundation’s donation, REJOICE, Inc.’s staff distributed 450 games, books, and toys to Ames Elementary on December 20, Woods Elementary and Washington Elementary on December 21, and to children of their clients on December 24.  These gifts went to 100 Head Start, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at Washington Elementary School, 112 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at Ames Elementary School, 95 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at Woods Elementary School and 50 families being served by their staff.  The donation also helped enhance the classroom environments of three Title 1 schools, using the books and learning games/toys to extend the children’s learning experience.

On December 21, Total Community Action distributed the toys to 750 pre-school age children at 9 Head Start centers and 170 infants and toddlers at 4 Early Head Start Centers throughout New Orleans. In attendance at all the celebrations were the parents of the participants, center staff, agency administrators, Head Start Central Office staff and of course the children enrolled at each center.

These gifts allowed our children and families to forget for a moment about the hardship that many of them are still experiencing as a result of Hurricane Katrina. It is through the kindness of individuals and organizations such as United Way, Toys for the Holiday and its partners that make our society a better place to live.