2021 Holiday Toy Drive Success

A Special Thanks to All Who Participated

Erika

2021 Holiday Toy Drive Success

It was an incredible experience to be able to give back to the children in our communities during our annual Toy Drive! We were able to raise over $33,000 in cash and gift cards directly towards the local organizations to provide toys for kids in need. Along with truck loads of toys directly to the organizations!

This year we spanned the toy drive over 5 DAYS filled with people coming together to collect toys for local organizations. We kicked off the first broadcast at Institution for Savings in Salem, which was a fantastic place to start. The energy was full and so was the toy bucket! Even at 8am!

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Woodmans in Essex

We followed that up at the iconic Woodmans in Essex. Home of the best seafood on the North shore. While many members of the community came together, we had the Men’s Choir perform some holiday music. It was certainly a highlight, along with the ***, showing up with a truck full of toys, winter clothes, and other things any child might need for the holidays. They collect all year round to donate at our toy drive to Cape Ann Kids, the organization the donations were going to for this event. We knew it was important as a station that supports the local community that the donations were going to local children, so we could directly support the families in our communities.

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The following day started off strong at Capitol Diner in Lynn, where we kicked off our Dominik The Donkey challenge! This challenge was where Senator Bruce Tarr would sing Dominik the Donkey if we hit our goal of raising $16,000 dollars! Governor Baker stopped by and made a generous donation to the cause towards DCF, giving us our first leap towards the Dominik the donkey challenge. The day continued with an incredible event at Recovery Centers of America where Santa joined us in collecting donations for the community giving tree, and even followed us to Lyon-Waugh Auto group. We were also collecting for Cape Ann kids. Dogs, A children’s choir, and lots of people came together to make this event special.

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Who Doesn’t love a stuffed animal?

These were the hit at our first event on Wednesday with Heavenly Donuts in North Andover. Where members of the Merrimack Valley Chamber and many others came together to collect toys for United Way. The “squishmellows” we’re the talk of the event, a popular kids plush toy. This “squishmellow” trend carried on to the second event of the day at Aubuchon Hardware in Ipswitch, where we collected donations for the Ipswitch YMCA and Ipswitch Caring. They had already collected over a thousand dollars at the register by asking customers for donations, and we truly appreciated everyone’s generosity there.

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We Finished off the third day of the Toy Drive at the iconic Teresa’s Italian Eatery in Middleton. So many people came together for the Neighbors in Need foundation. Even the boy scouts had a large drop off of toys. It was a perfect way to end day 3 of the Toy Drive.

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On Thursday we were off to Newburyport! Such a beautiful town and sense of community here as we collected for toys for tots in the beautifully renovated Newburyport Bank. The holiday spirit was high, but the pile of toys was higher! After the bank’s generous donation, we had finally hit our Dominik the Donkey goal of $16,000 in monetary donations to the organizations. With almost two full days left, we had to raise the goal, bringing it up to $30,000. It was certainly ambitious, but we knew the community would come together to hit that goal for the local kids in need. To finish off this first event and celebrate hitting out goal, Bruce Tarr and the Newburyport Bank staff sent us off with a fun rendition of “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”, live on air!

We didn’t think the song could be topped, until the Grinch showed up at our next stop, The Maids at Verani Realty. The Maids, or, The Elves this day, managed so save the toys from the Grinch, and celebrated saving the Holidays with a self-written Christmas jingle at the end. This was an awesome stop, and we were able to collect tons of toys and monetary donations for the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center.

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Our Last Day

On Thursday we were off to Newburyport! Such a beautiful town and sense of community here as we collected for toys for tots in the beautifully renovated Newburyport Bank. The holiday spirit was high, but the pile of toys was higher! After the bank’s generous donation, we had finally hit our Dominik the Donkey goal of $16,000 in monetary donations to the organizations. With almost two full days left, we had to raise the goal, bringing it up to $30,000. It was certainly ambitious, but we knew the community would come together to hit that goal for the local kids in need. To finish off this first event and celebrate hitting out goal, Bruce Tarr and the Newburyport Bank staff sent us off with a fun rendition of “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”, live on air!

We didn’t think the song could be topped, until the Grinch showed up at our next stop, The Maids at Verani Realty. The Maids, or, The Elves this day, managed so save the toys from the Grinch, and celebrated saving the Holidays with a self-written Christmas jingle at the end. This was an awesome stop, and we were able to collect tons of toys and monetary donations for the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center.

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Cape Ann Savings bank was the last stop of the toy drive, and it couldn’t have ended on a better note. Before we even arrive, they had already had to come collect a truck load of toys, and the pile was still growing for Cape Ann Kids. We had a couple awesome live performances that kept the energy up and alive through our last event, and at the end of the day we hit our goal, collecting over $33,000 dollars just during the broadcasts alone, so as promised, Bruce Tarr and others wrapped up the toy drive with Dominik the Donkey.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in making local children’s holidays better. We can’t wait for next year!

The Maids

Aubuchon Hardware

North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau

Brookline Bank

Emanio Creative

Lyon-Waugh Auto Group

Cape Ann Savings Bank

Newburyport Bank

Institution For Savings

Mills

Recovery Centers of America

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