Community effort leads to much appreciation
Hundreds of toys for kids at Judson Center began with a couple volunteers
A Royal Oak community effort that resulted in the collection of holiday toys for children through the Judson Center started small, but left the nonprofit with a large afterglow of appreciation.
Longtime Royal Oak community volunteer and activist Clyde Esbri drove by the Judson Center near his home and thought of the fact the pandemic was likely to put a real bite on holiday gift donations for children served by the center.
“I realized so much of their toys for the holidays came from firms in office buildings,” Esbri recalled. “And I knew many of the offices were empty because of the pandemic and that wouldn’t be happening.”
The Judson Center started as an adoption and foster care agency in Royal Oak in 1924. It expanded and is now a multi-service human service agency and certified community behavioral health clinic. During the holidays it opens a gift Wish Room for the young children it serves.
Esbri had done small toy donations with friends before for the Judson Center, but wanted to do more as the pandemic gripped the nation.
“I went to Lindsay Warren because she is a community organizer extraordinaire in Royal
Oak,” he said.
Warren, one of the administrators and founders of the Royal Oak Residents for Royal Oak community Facebook page, exudes the enthusiasm of a born optimist.
Some of the other early volunteers were Doreen Dobson and Dee Mack.
“Lindsay organized the collection of toys — hundreds of them — and made her first big drop at the Judson Center on Dec. 3,” said Lenora Hardy-Foster, CEO and president of the center, in a letter to the Tribune. “With this donation we knew we would have the inventory to open a well-stocked Wish Room on Dec. 7.”
Esbri expected the toy collecting would taper off in November, but interest
remained strong through December.
Warren learned most places that traditionally headed up toy drives were closed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We thought, ‘Great, we have the Royal Oak Residents for Royal Oak and a big group of people who are going to want to help out,’” she said.
After Esbri and Warren got permission to put a toy collection box in the Royal
Oak Police Department the effort grew larger.
“We called Lt. Al Carter to see if the cops could help out and he was very accommodating and so was Police Chief Corrigan O’Donohue,” Esbri said. “Within 48 hour we had everything put together.”
Lieutenant Carter put a call out for donations and came up with about $900. Warren took the money and bought toys at the Toyology store on Main Street, using
Downtown Dollars gift cards that allowed the volunteers to double their buying power.
Toyology picked up on the spirit of the toy drive when Warren went to buy toys there.
“They gave us 10 percent off on all the toys we bought,” Warren said.
In the end, volunteers estimate they ended up collecting about 800 toys worth an estimated $12,000.
Meantime, other residents made their own individual donations, and Royal Oak city employees shopped through an adopt-a-family program through the Judson Center.
Warren is already looking forward to Christmastime again this year.
“We have a really good foundation to this again,” in 2021, she said. “But we want to do it even bigger … and hopefully double our efforts.”