Thousands of gifts donated to Dayton Children’s
Donations included stuffed animals, wagons and more.
A stream of cars came to drop off gifts Saturday morning at Dayton Children’s Hospital’s annual gift drive in a parking lot off North Keowee Street.
The donations go toward holiday gifts for kids at Dayton Children’s, said Megan Calabro, director of Child Life at the hospital. She said her department, which is there to make sure kids can still be kids, uses the gifts year-round to distract kids who are in the hospital, help kids cope with longer hospital stays, communicate to kids what will happen to them during a medical procedure and cheer kids up.
“Donations like this are imperative to my team, because play is the job of the child,” Calabro said. “A lot of our tools for the team to be successful are toys.”
Businesses and schools donated items like new stuffed animals, wagons, play kits, Play Dough, Legos and more.
Calabro said being in the hospital during the holidays can be tough, and getting presents can provide some sort of sense of normalcy for kids.
“Unfortunately, kids being in the hospital over the holidays can be a really big challenge,” Calabro said. “We tried to provide some normalization with that and make sure that regardless of what they celebrate during the month of December, we have the resources to support them in celebrating that.”
Heather Arrowood of Mosher Machine and Tool, one of the local companies that provided donations, said it’s important to give back during the holidays.
“I just wanted to see kids have smiles on their faces,” she said.
Matt Spradlin of Alro Steel brought a group of kids with him and said it was good for the kids to learn how to give back.
“We try to do something like this every year,” he said. “A big part of what we do is try to give back to the community.”
Calabro thanked the community for their donations and said it would be difficult for the hospital to provide these kinds of services on their own.
“The ‘why’ for me is that our patients and families are going through such difficult experiences when they have a medical emergency or crisis or even an ongoing illness that they’re facing,” she said. “Anything that we can do to make sure that their care is individualized and personalized and make the experience easier for them.”
The hospital has a list of requested donations on an Amazon Wish List, but the toys and donations need to be new to avoid possible infections.
The hospital says monetary donations can also be made at support.daytonchildrens.org/givechildlife or by calling 937-641-3303.