Heart of the High Plains: Northside Toy Drive
AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – Northside Toy Drive is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that began in 2013 as an effort to improve Christmas morning for children in Amarillo.
"We provide hope and smiles for the community," Julian Reese, Northside Toy Drive board member, said. "It was a sense of doing something for families and young kids on the north side of town who just didn't have a lot and just to put a smile on their face during the holidays, to give them something to smile and be hopeful for during the holidays."
To this day, the organization works to uplift and encourage children in the Amarillo community through the annual Christmas Toy Giveaway.
"It shows that we're in this world that is not just about us and our families, but what we can do for someone else," Reese said. "We are extending ourselves to other people so that they have hope, and then they can continue to do the same and not be such a selfish world that we live in now. We can be giving to one another no matter what you look like, how you sound, or where you come from, but we can do it and do it together."
Each year, after Northside Toy Drive's Black Tie Affair , volunteers welcome neighborhood children to the giveaway party. Children of all ages are invited to enjoy a light breakfast and choose from a selection of toys and books.
"It's amazing to see kids smile because the world we live in is cruel," Reese said. "Young people go to school, people pick on them, still talk about them and things that they don't have. Or it may be a struggle, and something may happen, a family member may pass or lose a job, especially where we are right now in life and they can't have what they really want. But this time, they get to come and pick the exact toy or whatever it is that they want. The parent doesn't pick it. They get to pick whatever they want. Putting a smile on their faces makes you feel good."
Northside Toy Drive also provides college scholarships to high school seniors seeking to further their education.
