Children for Change

Children for Change is a program that is very special in my heart. It was inspired by my very close friend’s children. They had been volunteering with their mom since they were four. Within a few years of being so closely involved the charity the children began to engage me in conversations of how they felt we could raise money. They would volunteer all year long at events and then her son, Jared, became a public speaker for the charity. Speaking to groups of all ages in public and even on the radio. Then in 2009, we created Children for Change. This program has become popular in all the school districts and youth oriented groups.

A special thank you to Dawn who has taken over this program in 2011 and has inspired her elementary school and 14 other schools to participate so far this school year.

The Toys of Hope Van Program

The van is the backbone of our work, carrying needed items to over 50,000 needy children, their families, and their pets each year.

Every day the van travels every major highway from Montauk to Manhattan.

Being a van sponsor provides 365 day visibility for less than the cost of a 1/4 page ad in our local newspaper for only one day.

The Toys of Hope van is always featured at every event and has weekly photo opportunities through out the year.

click here for a printable (mail in) contribution form

Opportunities to sponsor the van:

1 year of your logo/name on the van $3,500

Become a Van Sponsor

2 years prepaid $6,000

Become a Van Sponsor

3 years prepaid $8,500

Become a Van Sponsor

See other Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities

Christopher Quackenbush Memorial Scholarship

THE CHRIS QUACKENBUSH ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP

Purpose: To provide financial assistance to needy children who would like to
participate in youth league sports

Eligibility: Child must be from a low income family

Financial Data: The amount awarded varies, depending upon the needs of the recipient and the availability of funds

Duration: One season

Special Features: This scholarship is named in honor of Chris Quackenbush. Recipients will attend the Oheka Castle event with a parent to receive the award.

Requirements: The recipient must present evidence of enrollment in or acceptance to a sports program before funds will be released

Number Awarded: Varies each year ]]> http://www.toysofhope.org/important-message/memorial/feed 0 http://www.toysofhope.org/important-message/fact_sheet http://www.toysofhope.org/important-message/fact_sheet#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:21:19 +0000 admin http://toysofhope.com/?p=237 Click here →]]> 100% of all donations are used to help needy children, their families and their pets.  Toys of Hope was founded in 1994 by Melissa Doktofsky, who believes that all children, regardless of financial status, race, religion or nationality, are deserving of those things which can help give them a happier and more fulfilling life. We believe in giving only brand new items to our families to ensure self esteem and a sense of pride. We believe that we can't truly help a child unless we help their family. With this in mind, we help children, their families and their pets. A very unique, yet simple, concept.

• Toys of Hope is unique on Long Island in that it is run completely by volunteers. There is no paid staff.
• 100% of all donations are used to help needy children, their families and their pets.
• Office space and storage space is donated or rent is sponsored by organizations, private donors and local businesses.
• Movie star, Justin Long, serves as our national spokesperson.
• Toys of Hope has donated storage in Farmingville and a sponsored warehouse in Huntington.
• The charity delivery van is sponsored by businesses and civic groups annually.
• The warehouse program gives another opportunity for sponsorship.
• Toys of Hope operates all year long, distributing toys, clothing, books and new school supplies.
• Toys of Hope supplies new toys, warm winter clothing and needed items to 65,000 children, including those in hospitals, shelters and soup kitchens.
• All of our programs program foster self-esteem, self-discipline, and self-worth in children and their families.
• "Out for a Day” program provides a day of fun and recreation for children and their families. The cost of a day at a ballpark or movie theatre can be prohibitively expensive for a family that is struggling to pay their monthly bills. This program provides the whole family a memorable experience that they can treasure. The  arents and their children have a chance to enjoy being together without the stress of having to use money from their household expenses. Toys of Hope pays for admission tickets, snacks and souvenirs. Toys of Hope has treated families as small as three, and groups of up to fifty children and adults, to the "Out for a Day" program.
• The children helped come from homeless or low-income families; many children from single-parent households and shelters who otherwise would not be able to afford to buy gifts and supplies for their children.
• In addition, case workers, school nurses and other non profits refer families to us.
• Since 1994, Toys of Hope has documented helping over a million people.
• We help families based on need, focussing on the poorest of the poor especially homeless children.
• Toys of Hope distributes a wish list and opportunities for local businesses to adopt families.
• "Poor Paws" program was created when families stated that they eat less to keep their pet. The charity gives companion animals, pet food and supplies so families can keep their beloved pets.
• Toys of Hope received "National" recognition for our work with Hurricane Katrina families and animals across the country, featured on NBC news in NY, news and newspaper coverage in New Orleans (WHNO-TV20) and in Philadelphia on (WYW-TV).
• We host many parties throughout the year, and Oheka Castle is our premier event featuring celebrities and high profile sponsorship opportunities.
• Our annual Toys of Hope Holiday Party at Oheka Castle serves 300 to 500 children from local daycare centers and preschools, who each have a chance to meet Santa Claus, The 911 Firemen, stars from the Nickelodeon or Disney channels, Broadway stars, professional athletes, and tv stars who all help each child go home from the party with a huge bag of toys.
• Country singer Martina McBride selected our charity as the only charity for her concert in NY. Martina surprised the Toys of Hope children by allowing them to sing on stage at Nassau Coliseum at her concert. Martina also hosted an island wide toy drive promoted by Newsday.
• We are flattered that some of the nation’s most famous celebrities have sought us out to donate their time.
• Toys of Hope has been proudly honored with a special award from the Governor of New York.
• The charity has received a special Legislative Resolution acknowledging our work to be forever written in the history logs of our capital in Albany
• Toys of Hope was the recipient of the prestigious Martin Luther King “ Living the Dream” Award.
• The Toys of Hope team is continually recognized for its outstanding work by state and local governments, boards of education and all year long is featured on local and national news media outlets.

Out for a Day

Toys of Hope’s unique program, “Out for a Day,” provides a day of fun and recreation for children and their families. Some of the places and events that families have been treated to include: baseball games at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium; Off-Broadway shows; the circus at the Nassau Coliseum; local museums and historical sites; the Bronx Zoo; comedy shows; arcades; the Long Island Game Farm; aquariums; college sporting events; and a trip to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

The cost of a day at a ballpark or movie theatre can be prohibitively expensive for a family that is struggling to pay their monthly bills. This program provides the whole family a memorable experience that they can treasure. The parents and their children have a chance to enjoy being together without the stress of having to use money from their household expenses.

Toys of Hope pays for admission tickets, snacks and souvenirs.

Toys of Hope has treated families as small as three, and groups of up to fifty children and adults, to the “Out for a Day” program.

Do you lead a busy life, with a family, pets, work and weeknight activities?

Are you unhappy with the extra weight you are carrying around?

Toys of Hope Pounds for the Poor program is teaming up with Long Island health and fitness related businesses to make reaching your weight loss goals a way to raise money for children who are less fortunate.

Let your weight loss bring a smile to a child’s face

While raising money for homeless and needy children and losing a few (or more) pounds in the process!

• Set a 12 week goal: lose weight get healthy feel good
• Get sponsors: a friend a family member a colleague
  

Toys of Hope has partnered with Fitness Together Woodbury 8243 Jericho Turnpike Woodbury 11797

All participants of Pounds for the Poor are eligible for discounts at the Tuesday night boot camp, running school and training packages.

Please email the completed form to: toysofhope@gmail.com

Or fax the completed form to 631-421-6866

To Donate for this program specifically please click here!

All participants are automatically entered for our health related raffle prizes donated by local businesses.

Poor Paws is a program that was started after we realized that many low income families struggle to feed and care for their pets. Sometimes, they face the difficult choice of feeding themselves or their pets. Toys of Hope helps these families by providing them with donated pet food and pet supplies.

The goal of the program is not only to help the animals, but also to allow disadvantaged children and families to enjoy the companionship that their pets provide.

Click on any of the images below to see full size photos of Poor Paws events.

Literacy Program

The goal of the Toys of Hope literacy program is to encourage children to read by providing them with new books and reading materials. Books are donated by bookstores, such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, as well as publishers, including Scholastic Books.

Books provided range from those for infants, such board books and bath time books, through nursery rhyme books and early readers up to high school age reading materials.

The children are referred by either a teacher, social worker or school nurse and also by other not-for-profit organizations.

The Interactive Reading Program provides a volunteer who will visit with the children, read a story that they can participate in, and then elicits ideas and comments, using friendly puppets to teach a gentle lesson in manners or morals. The children are excited by the presentation, and their teachers report that it makes them enthusiastic about learning.

We also distribute Birthday Books to children in need. The children look forward to receiving a book every year on their birthday as an extra special present.

Random Acts of Kindness (Samoset Middle School)

Our Story

The month of February is recognized as national “Random Acts of Kindness” month. The Samoset BLT (Building Leadership Team) set out to find a project that would teach the Sachem middle school students about the joy of giving to others who are less fortunate. We researched many different options for our “act of kindness”. We unanimously agreed on raising funds to purchase children’s storybooks, record a narrative CD, and donate them to a local charity.

Samoset Middle School teamed up with Waldenbooks in the Smithhaven Mall. The Waldenbooks store was kind enough to ask its patrons if they would be willing to donate a dollar toward the purchase of books for less fortunate children. At the same time, Samoset BLT along with the support of the Renaissance Club was running their “books for a buck” campaign during the lunch periods at school.

Our next step was to find a local charity that the Building Leadership Team would be proud to support. We contacted several charities on Long Island. Quite by accident we came upon an organization called “Toys of Hope”. Its founder, Melissa Doktofsky, established Toys of Hope on Long Island in 1994. There are no paid employees at this organization and ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of all funds contributed go towards helping needy and homeless children and their families. Please visit their web site at www.toysofhope.org to see all they do for our local community.

With the generous support from our sachem students, its faculty and surrounding community, we were able to purchase over one hundred, hard covered children’s storybooks. The Samoset students volunteered time during lunch periods and after school to narrate the stories onto a CD that will accompany the books. These books will be utilized as part of the Toys of Hope literacy campaign. Samoset will present these books to “Toys of Hope” on June 11th, 2008.

Thanks to all those who have volunteered their support in making our “random act of kindness” a great success!

2010 UPDATE

“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” – Nietzsche

I started training for the full marathon pretty much a week after I completed the half, this past January. It’s been pretty intense, I’ve managed my way through several injuries, nothing serious, and have focused on a more balanced diet and a brutal core training schedule. I have run several half marathons since and am pretty much running 50-60 miles a week. The development from the day I started has been amazing. I used to be out of gas after Mile one. Nowadays I’ll cruise through Mile 17 no sweat. It is truly impressive what the human body is capable of given the right attitude and beliefs. I will say, however, that being 38 isn’t like being 21. I’ve dehydrated myself at times to the point of passing out, so it has been a learning process as well. At any rate, I think I am ready and cannot wait for race day.

As I run the race this January, I have an additional major motivation, in addition to running for this worthy cause. Our firm recently suffered a tragic and sudden loss with the passing of our friend and president, Tom Wilson. He was a great man and a true friend to so many and I will no doubt be thinking of him and his family frequently as I run the race. My thoughts will also be focused on all the families and children we can hopefully support, who so desperately need a smile on their face and a positive outlook as they grow up.

Michael Sillat and family
(Janine,Ethan and Emma Sillat)

"For some time now I have looked for an organization that benefits kids and ways to help especially the youngsters in this world that, if neglected or simply not priviledged as some of us are, never get a chance to see the brighter side of life."

I am 37 years old, born and raised in Australia, have lived in Huntington for 7 years now (married a Long Island gal), woke up one morning about a year ago and simply had an urge to get into shape. I decided to start running and started out with small distances, say a mile or so a day. I changed my diet around and ate moderately, but healthy. Within 4 months I had lost 45 pounds and am running typically 7 miles a day. Its always been a dream of mine to run a marathon, and I am still a ways away from being able to do that so I'm starting with my first half marathon on January 18th. I'm flying to Phoenix to run the P.F. Changs Rock n Roll Arizona - Half Marathon. The race is 13 miles and my goal is to do it under 2 hours. I am registered to race on January 18th at 8:30 am.

Help Michael Sillat raise money for needy children, their families and their pets.

• Donate ($5.00) per mile: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
• Donate directly in honor of him: click to donate
• Donate to Toys of Hope runners: click to donate

Michael Sillat running for families

Well, the preparation for the run was indeed grueling, considering I have never run distances like this. But, with a kick in the rear every now and again, a more balanced diet and a whole ton of determination I was able to find time in the morning to run about an average of 5 miles. On weekends 7-10 Miles. A few weeks before the race I ran the full distance on a treadmill and while I was happy with the time, I basically bludgeoned two toes and started developing some really sore feet. Turns out that when running long distances you should replace running shoes every 300-500 miles and buy special socks. Well, I hadn't done either in years so that was obviously a factor. So off I flew to sunny Phoenix where the temps on race day were in the high 70s! The run itself was organized perfectly. As you can see, being a loyal Jets fan I couldn't help run in a Jets T-Shirt. My strategy was that if I could upset enough of the sideline observers (obviously, most of them were Cardinals fans and were about to play Philadelphia for a spot in the Superbowl only hours after the race finished), that their cat-calling would spur me on. Well…..it worked and amidst all the boo’s and “loser” calls, I rose to the occasion and the results were as follows:

25,500 runners registered for the half marathon, 21,990 finished.

2nd runner: Justin Meizlik
• Distance: HALF MAR
• Chip Time: 1:36:50
• Gender Place: 425 / 7944
• Placeoall: 510
• Placediv: 70
• Pace: 7:24
• 5 Km: 23:21
• 10 Km: 45:41
• 10 2 Mile: 1:13:53

So I finished in the top 2% of those that registered which I thought was pretty good. At about Mile 10 I pretty much concluded that I have got to do the full marathon next year and will start training for that in the Summer. I hope that we can once again attract attention for this wonderful cause, especially in times such as these, despite the fact that it is very difficult to solicit support, its most important, in my mind, that the children of today, are kept smiling and positive about what the future for them holds.

Thanks to everyone that donated to this cause, I think we raised a huge amount of money and look forward to doing it over next year.

Michael Sillat

• Donate ($5.00) per mile: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
• Donate directly in honor of him: click to donate
• Donate to Toys of Hope runners: click to donate