Listen To This Story
Center for People has hosted Toyland for several years. It’s a three-day event in which the organization hands out toys and gifts for kids of all ages to Lincoln community members free of charge.
“It’s an opportunity for us to help our community members who might be you know, kind of in a vulnerable state, maybe haven’t worked in a while, having trouble making ends meet but still want to provide a holiday for their family and their children,” said Belinda Acosta, the communications director at Center for People.
This year’s event was a bit different than past years. Center for People worked with the community ahead of the event to register families who wanted to have the opportunity to visit Toyland. Acosta said this new process helped Center for People know approximately how many gifts they would need to arrange for—in past years, they had run out of gifts for certain age groups.
“We wanted to make sure that our families have a shopping experience that brought dignity, respect and definitely an experience for them and so we tried to capture that this year,” said Macala Carter, the executive director at Center for People.
Center for People registered more than 700 families this year. The families were assigned a time to come meet their volunteer personal shopper and traveled throughout Toyland to get one gift per child as well as stocking stuffers. The tables were separated by age group and included gifts ranging from art supplies to gift cards.
Monica, a volunteer who spent the whole day at Toyland, is a nursing student. She worked the check in table in the morning.
“When I was a kid, I used to come here to get the toys, so every Christmas I do this,” she said.
David Barnes, a volunteer personal shopper and Star City Parade Santa Claus for the last 17 years, said he looks forward to making kids happy for the holidays.
Before entering Toyland, parents, guardians and any kids who tagged along, could make holiday arts and crafts as they waited for their turn to go shopping.
The shopping trip began with personal shoppers calling out the names of Toyland participants.
Barnes called out Crystal Martinez, single mother of four, as one of the first shoppers.
“They’re going to be very surprised, they enjoy and they love Christmas very much so I know they’re going to enjoy these [gifts] very much,” she said.
William Marion has volunteered with Center for People for a little more than five months. He helped shoppers choose stocking stuffers out of two big boxes. He dug through them to find a perfect match for each child—like the last car in the box for a little boy who likes cars and a single UNO game for a family requesting it.
“I found the UNO!” He told the shoppers with a laugh. “I dug deep for that!”
Parents and guardians left Toyland with smiles on their faces and big red bags full of presents for their families.
One Toyland shopper came from Ukraine seven months ago with their seven children. They typed a message to the volunteers in Ukrainian.
“It was very difficult for us to leave everything and run away from the war, but thanks to such people, as you can see, it’s easier for us,” the message said. “Merry Christmas and may there always be peace in your homes!”