- McKenna Reitz, 40, is a teacher and motivational speaker who started a toy drive at her Ohio school.
- Insider asked Reitz the most common mistakes she runs into with collecting donations.
- "Donations that are used or inappropriate have to be donated elsewhere or thrown away," she said.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with McKenna Reitz, 40, a high school teacher and motivational speaker who started a toy drive at her Ohio school. It has been edited for length and clarity.
In November 2015, I was diagnosed with Alopecia, an autoimmune disease that made me lose all of my hair. Even though it was very difficult to experience, I'm an AP psychology teacher in Holland, Ohio, and I felt like I had to show up and do my job as a teacher.
I got the idea to start a toy drive for the Russell J. Ebeid Children's Hospital because it's my local children's hospital, it has the region's largest newborn intensive care unit, and my two daughters were born there. I figured my students and I could do something to brighten these kids' holiday season.
After getting the green light from my school's principal and the children's hospital, my students and I set a goal of donating a couple hundred toys and delivering them. We ended up collecting almost 1,500 toys that year.
Since 2015, we've collected more than 45,000 toys and $15,000 to donate to the hospital. But every year, I see a lot of the same mistakes happen with our toy drives and others.
Here are the most common things to avoid when donating to a try drive or starting one.
Know what the organization needs
Before you start collecting toys, really communicate with the organization you're donating to. When I contacted the children's hospital, I found out that whenever a child goes to the emergency room, is admitted to the hospital, or is there for any type of imaging, they're given a toy or stuffed animal to relieve some of that stress and anxiety.
When I chatted with them, I found out exactly what they needed, which was a little bit of everything. But I also learned that they admit children up to age 18. We typically always think that we're donating toys to just babies and toddlers. I wanted to make sure we were covering the bases for all the age groups.
Find out what's needed, which could change on a yearly basis, so you know exactly what to collect.
Find out the restrictions
Be very clear on the restrictions and guidelines that the organization has around what they can accept when it comes to donations. For example, when you're giving to hospitals, you're bringing items into an environment that needs to be protected. That's why it's critical that you're advertising to your community that you can only accept unwrapped toys with the tags still on.
It's also important to make sure that donations are age appropriate, safe, and aren't promoting violence in any way (ex: donations of plastic toy guns). That's why we sort through every single item donated to make sure it meets the rules of the organization.
Donations that are used or inappropriate have to be donated elsewhere (such as Goodwill) or thrown away.
One big change we experienced was during the pandemic, when the hospital's restrictions changed. In 2020, we were only able to give monetary donations, but that's no longer the case.
Don't be afraid to spread the word
The biggest mistake local toy drives can make is not getting the support they need to reach their donation goals. If you want to make an impact, you have to go for it.
Remember, during the holiday season especially, people are being bombarded for donations. So you have to lead with the purpose and goal for your toy drive.
Every year, we do a handful of things to help get the word out about our toy drive. Some of those things include social media (frequent posts on different platforms, getting others to share the posts, and people tagging information about the drive, etc.), contacting the local news who usually love to hear about these types of events, and getting support from local businesses who can spread the word to their audience. For example, a local bagel company gave away a free bagel to every customer who donated a toy.
Keep an eye on your donations
It's important to be careful when it comes to where you're storing donations. You want to make sure that nobody can get access to these items and potentially steal them, especially if word is really getting out about how much money or how many toys you're collecting.
To help prevent this from happening, have a clear idea of where you're going to store money or toys. We started off storing donations in a classroom and when our drive got too big, we stored them inside a locked half semi truck that was in the parking lot. Ask local companies to get involved to donate storage space, trucks, or even bins.
As we move into our eighth annual toy drive, my best piece of advice for others is to just go for it and don't feel like you have to start small. Go big because the impact you can have on others during the holiday times is truly significant.
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