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What: Toy and Joy Drive Boot Camp!

When: December 15th

Location: Anytime Fitness off Santa Rosa Ave. and Kiwana Springs

11AM

Now that we have the major details out the way… Here’s a little bit more info! Myself and Heather Muysken will be rocking a donation oriented boot camp on Saturday, December 15th. The time is 11am, and what we are trying to do is do a WHOLE lot of contributing to making the holiday season (and more) a little less of a struggle for our community. To do that, we need your help…

Keep in mind as you read all of this… You do NOT have to DO the boot camp to come donate. In fact, I expect there to be more people who stop by and donate than who stay to do the boot camp. With each person that comes by to donate, I want to take a photo of them to be included in a special “Toy and Joy Drive” slideshow. That slideshow will be shared EVERYWHERE! I also wouldn’t be surprised if it’s picked up on a few major websites if you catch my drift… Please, dig with everything you’ve got to at LEAST donate some of the positive tidings in your life to families that have damn near none. Not only that, you will be a part an inspiring video that will be used to help motivate a TON of people to do the same!

Heather is going to be representing “The Living Room.” They are the only daytime drop-in center in Sonoma County specifically serving homeless and at-risk women and their children. They provide:

• a warm and safe atmosphere to be during the day when shelters are closed,
• a nutritious breakfast and hot lunch,
• a first step for women on the verge of becoming homeless,
• a first place for at-risk or newly homeless to turn to for relief and referral guidance to other community agencies,
• a place to obtain information tailored to meet individual needs, such as job search skills, mother and child education, health care knowledge, etc.,
• essential hygiene items, food items, and clothing for women and children.  

Click on the photo to be brought the The Living Room’s Facebook page! “Like” it like it’s going out of style! This is a definite chance to make things better 🙂

To help out, here is a list of things that would be amazing for you to provide to this wonderful local organization:

FOR WOMEN

• Grocery store gift cards
• Phone and gasoline Cards
• Hygiene items:  deodorant (small), disposable razors, lip balm, hand sanitizer, Kleenex (small)
• Reading glasses
• Socks and underwear
• Sleeping bags
• Bicycle locks
• Food items:  olive oil, oatmeal & cold cereal, coffee, tea, peanut butter
• Clean, gently used clothing

FOR CHILDREN:

• Diapers –  sizes 4, 5, and 6
• Baby wipes
• Socks & underwear
• Sippee cups
• Clean, gently used clothing

NEEDLE CRAFT SUPPLIES:

• Crochet hooks
• Knitting  needles
• Embroidery hoops and floss

A photo from LAST year’s toy drive!

On MY end, I’m going to be asking for TOYS! Above is a photo of the toys we collected last year, and I firmly believe from the bottom of my heart that we can damn near triple that photo above. We are a community of rebels hell bent on making the holidays better for EVERYONE since we ALL are participants in this crazy thing we call life.

I will be going through the Santa Rosa Fire Fighters Local 1401, utilizing one of the many drop locations they have to bring a whole heaping helping of toys their way! I did a lot of research on who to bring these toys too, and the reason I chose them is they help out locally:

“Schools: Kwana, Biella, Bellevue, Lincoln, Steel Lane, Meadow VIew, Luther Burbank, Cook, Comstock, Sheppard, Elsie Allen, Head Start Selpa and Roseland Shelters: Redwood Gospel, St. Vincent De Paul, Women’s Recovery, Y.W.C.A. Safe house, Children’s Home, Homeless Shelter, R.E.A.P. and Athena House. Community Groups: Forest Winds Apts., Giving Tree, Kashia Reservation, Bob Burk’s kids, Papago Ct. neighborhood Assn., Aston Ave. Neighborhood Assn. Gang Intervention Program, American Legion Auxiliary and R-Hoops.”

Above are all the local places the firefighters utilize to make sure all the toys not only go to a good home, but a local home as well!

Needed:

• New, unwrapped toys
• Cash donations (if time to go out and grab a toy is hard to come by OR if you want to avoid stores like the plague during the Holiday season like me…)

All cash donations collected are used at local stores to purchase toys at a discount. All overhead costs are covered by the Firefighters Union, with 100% of the money donated is used to buy toys locally for local children.

I look forward to seeing you all there!!!!