While leaving my Zumba class the other day, a friend and I noticed a large empty box in the lobby of the community center. It had a note on it about a toy drive for an organization called PATCHES PPEC, Pediatric Alternative Treatment, Care, Housing & Evaluation Services, Inc. and Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care. I immediately thought of the crochet toys I’ve been collecting. While there are a few places I can donate them to, I have already send them some other items, and one place in particular is difficult to hook up with to the point I was considering mailing this big box to them. But just as I was leery about simply putting all these toys in the box in the lobby – who knows where they were going or if they would make it there or if they were really what they were looking for – I didn’t like the idea of packing them off and sending them off without handing them to a person. So I came home, googled the organization, and called the local PATCHES office.

As it turns out, they are close to school, and though they said they would not be able to use my stuff toys in the hospital due to germs getting on them from one child to another, they said they would love to be able to give them out when the children are able to go home. They also said an emphatic “yes” to baby afghans, score! I am loading all these up and hope to drop them by in the next few days.

I will miss my little animal toy menagerie, but it is nice to find them all homes!