What started as Casey's dream, donating 100 toys to the hospital that has been his 2nd home, became a reality on Friday! Only the reality that we experienced was a million times better than any of us could ever imagine!
We sent out the toy drive announcement on November 19, 2010. Personally, I thought Casey's 100 toy goal was a bit of a stretch, but I was willing to help him in any way that I could! Over the next 4 weeks, Casey's Holiday Toy Drive turned into something bigger than we ever expected.
Casey was helped out by 2 middle school ASB classes (Redwood and Medea Creek). The Conejo Rec and Park District (including the Pre-K program at the Conejo Community Center) was a huge support for him, bringing in bags of toys every week! Some employees at the Las Virgenes Water District donated to Casey's cause. He also had TONS of friends and family donate as well. It seemed like everytime we thought, WOW this is CRAZY, it would get even crazier!!!
We eventually had to move the toys from our house to our travel trailer. It wasn't long before we realized that our deadline was apporaching.... and we had NO WAY of transporting all of these toys to the hospital, hahaha! That's when Michael Hawk (Casey's Papa) and the Reed Family (Brett's Boss) stepped in to help. On Friday, December 17, 2010 we loaded up 2 SUV's and a truck and drove down to the hospital. We unloaded and eventually made it upstairs to the pediatric floor.
The staff was literally speechless. Usually, they set all of the toys out to take a picture of the donation, but there were just too many toys! They told us that the toys will be used in a "toy store" where parents can go choose what ever they want for their kids- which is great because the LAST thing any parent has time to do is Christmas shopping when their child is hospitalized! We took pictures and after the hospital staff was done praising Casey, we left.
We took Casey to a special lunch and all he could talk about was doing the same thing next year!
So, before I post the pictures, I would like to thank you all again for all of your support. You've helped Casey acheive an amazing thing this year!!!
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| Brett- Elf |
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| Papa and Casey- Elves |
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| Ken Reed- Elf |
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| Shelly Reed- Elf |
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| Even Ryan was helping out! |
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| It took 3 loads like this to get everything upstairs! |
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| Our crew and the Hopital staff! |
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| The hospital. |
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| Casey with less than half of the toys! |
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