During the holidays we often get caught up in the excitement, the anticipation, the shopping, the events, and the hustle and bustle. I wanted to make sure that my girls appreciate their blessings, but more importantly, to start a habit of serving others. A few years ago we started a family tradition to use our platform to help others in our area who could use a little extra holiday cheer. We’re so excited to continue the tradition this year with the 3rd Annual Soccer Mom Blog Toy Drive!
3rd Annual Soccer Mom Blog Toy Drive
Like most bloggers, I receive a lot of product pitches during the last few months of the year. As cool as it sounds to get tons of new toys, the reality is that we don’t need all of them. And if my kids are taking photos with the toys for blog posts, I can’t exactly sneak them under the tree later.
Then I had a thought – what if we donated those toys to families that do need them?
Three years ago, the Soccer Mom Toy Drive was born and exceeded our modest expectations. In just a few short weeks of planning, we rounded up two sacks of goodies to Toys for Tots! (Read about our first toy drive here)
This year was especially important to me after Hurricane Harvey devastated our city of Houston. While Houston bounced back in amazing fashion, there are still so many families that lost everything and are struggling to rebuild.
Related: see photos of Harvey’s impact on our part of Houston here
Our sponsors for the 3rd Annual Soccer Mom Blog Toy Drive were incredibly generous, providing us with a HUGE box of gifts to donate!
This time, we kept our donations extremely close to home, as parts of our small suburb of Houston were hit especially hard. Our neighborhood sheriff offered to distribute our toys to area families that he personally knew might otherwise have a very lean Christmas.
A giant “thank you” to our generous sponsors!
Toy State sent a full crate of exciting Hot Wheels, Road Rippers, and Cat construction toys — we were blown away by their kindness to send so much for our cause.
My daughter had a blast demo-ing this Vampyra™ car – we’re talking lights, sound, chomping teeth…the works! I just know that these made some special kiddos very happy!
Even better than a toy kitchen! Weber Grills sent an Original Kettle Barbecue Toy – complete with “charcoal” that crackles and glows red, almost like the real thing! A budding chef will totally get a kick out of this unique toy!
We loved it so much that we got one for our daughter too – I can’t wait until the weather warms again and she can grill outside next to Daddy and his real Weber grill!
The Pencil Grip Inc. sent us half a dozen packages of their Kwik Stix Paint Markers – one of our family’s favorite art supplies (yay for mess-free painting!) Available at Walgreens, I love knowing that these are going to support some of our area’s aspiring young artists.
Some of the many art projects we’ve created using Kwik Stix:
Thank you again to our amazing sponsors who went above and beyond to make Christmas special for a few deserving local Houston families!
Please be sure to support Toy State, Weber Grills, and The Pencil Grip Inc. as they truly are kind-hearted and generous organizations.
Note: Each sponsor sent one separate toy for us to unwrap and demo for this post. Every single donated item went to area families in need.
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