Wow, the month of December can be a little crazy. I want to thank all of you for helping support our bake sale, participating in our book exchange and, now, bringing toys for our annual Safe Place toy drive.

Every year, the classrooms set a goal to raise a certain amount of toys for the children at Safe Place (I think all the classrooms voted on a 50 toy goal this year). Safe Place is a location where spouses who are being abused can escape with their children and start a new life. Often, the children have to leave very suddenly and they may not be able to take anything with them. Clothing, toys, pets–it’s all left behind.

When we introduce the toy drive to the children, we do not go into detail about why the children must leave. But we do tell them that these children often have no toys and they may not receive any presents because they have had to move very quickly. We invite our students to act as Santa Claus for these children. They love this idea and are very willing to share what they have.

Our toy drive will end on December 20th when I make the drive to Safe Place. We usually raise so many toys that it takes three huge bins to transport everything from my car to the warehouse!

Here is Safe Place’s wishlist:

http://www.safeaustin.org/get-involved/give/donate/wishlist/acswishlist/

They accept both new and gently used items.

Thank you so much, parents, for your giving hearts this holiday season!