Some of the donors give online, but the little boy who stepped into Timeless Toys in Lincoln Square on Sunday took a more personal approach.
About 6 or 7 years old, he was holding a small brown envelope, according to general manager Myra Cebollero.
“Are you ready to give your money?” asked the boy’s mother, and the boy handed his toy drive donation to a store employee, who thanked him, wrote his name on the envelope, and told him his gift would help children recently evacuated from Afghanistan to “forget their troubles” for a while.
The boy smiled and nodded.
“He wanted to do this,” his mother said.
A toy drive launched Friday by Timeless Toys co-owner Scott Friedland has already netted close to $3,000 in new toys, which the store will match, bringing the running total to $6,000, Friedland said Tuesday.
Friedland, who is also a captain in the Indiana Army National Guard, started the drive after hearing that families evacuated from Afghanistan would be staying at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, where he often trains.
A fellow toy store owner in Indiana told him she was starting a toy drive for the evacuees, and Friedland thought that would be a great fit for his store in Chicago.
“This is a really big time for our country to step up and help the people that need help,” said Friedland, 32. “I figured, why not us? Why can’t we be the people to help?”
He started with a simple email and Facebook post, inviting customers to buy new toys for the drive or donate a few dollars. Within 12 hours, he said, he had over $1,000 of new toys.
There’s a single $5 donation option at the Timeless Toys website, but customers have been hitting the $5 donation button repeatedly to give $50, $100 or even $150 to the toy drive, Friedland said.
Friedland said that all financial donations go to buying toys from his store; he matches both financial donations and toy purchases with toy donations of equal value. Donations can be made at the store’s website by using the promo code “ALLIES” at checkout and choosing in-store pickup.
Among the toys being donated: board books, dolls, sticker books, crafts and simple toddler toys such as stacking blocks.
Cebollero said she was pleased to see donors purchasing multicultural dolls with brown skin, and stickers featuring people with a range of skin tones.
Friedland, the father of two young children, noted the importance of stuffed animals: “That’s a wonderful comfort toy.”
The toy drive will continue as long as it is needed, but at least until Sept. 30. Friedland plans to deliver some of the toys through Team Rubicon, a disaster relief nonprofit. And he may make some in-person deliveries to Indiana National Guard armories as well.
“It feels great,” he said of the response from Chicagoans.
“We’ve done different toy drives before, and we’ve never quite gotten the response that we are (getting) right now.”
nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com
