Throughout the year, all kinds of donations are sent to Driscoll Children’s Hospital to be given to patients.
“A child that is on our floors, a patient, is given something each day,” says Kathy Jenkin, Volunteer Coordinator at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. “If it’s their birthday, they get a bigger toy. We do not leave our siblings out. If there are siblings in the room, they get something too.”
However, right after Thanksgiving, the donations really start pouring in, says Jenkin.
This is the time that volunteers will go through all of the donations, which are typically toys, or items that can be given as a Christmas present. Volunteers sort the donations and separate them into gift bags.
Beginning today, patients at Driscoll will start to receive toys and other items to help bring some normalcy for a hospital patient.
“If we need more, we’ll go buy some. To make sure all of our children get something. That’s what we do, that’s what we’re here for. To help brighten their day up and their parents day,” says Jenkin.
Most of the donations are brought in by individuals, or come from fundraisers. Jenkin says that if more people wish to bring donations before Christmas, they are encouraged to do so.
“It’s just so heart warming that the community comes out and rallies and helps us get all these toys for our children so that they’ll have some type of Christmas,” Jenkin said.
To donate, take an unwrapped, new toy to the Welcome Center at Driscoll Children’s Hospital and let them know that it is a donated item for a patient.
Toys will be given out until the end of the week and until every child at the hospital has received an item.
