This year’s Cancer Recovery Foundation of Canada toy drive has been the best yet.
The toys collected during the foundation’s annual drive are sent to hospitals with pediatric oncology units across the country where they’re given to children with cancer.
“This year has probably been the best for us,” said Shannon Kroon, the foundation’s executive director. “We have some companies bringing in toys for us as well as the Toronto firefighters.”
The toy drive, which took place from Nov. 15 until the end of the month, had drop off locations at Sylvan Learning Centres across the city.
“We have about 11 centres across Toronto, so all of our centres have these (donation) boxes,” Sylvan Learning regional director Toshif Patel said. “We have students that drop toys off occasionally. We have some teachers that will participate in bringing toys too.”
The main goal of the toy drive is to keep the children’s morale up while they go through their cancer treatments, Kroon said.
“To have a bag full of toys come in around Christmastime really helps to just lift their spirits,” she said. “It just reminds them of what it’s like to be a kid when they’re experiencing all these medical procedures.”