Beatrice Loving Heart takes pride in placing smiles on the faces of children. While many of the children served may not be in need, we believe every child matter. With easily impressionable minds, we like to give them positive images of the world and moments that could last a lifetime. Throughout the year, our agency provides toys to organizations, staff, and clients to share with family and loved ones. For the community, Beatrice Loving Heart holds an annual toy drive to collect new toys for families in Maryland. Since 2014, Beatrice Loving Heart has collected 68,293 toys that have been donated to shelters providing services to women and children, Toys for Tots, and local churches.
Over the years, Beatrice Loving Heart has proudly donated toy baskets for the children all over the states including the children we serve. Once a toy basket is prepared, special visits are then scheduled by the assigned Supports Planner to be delivered. During the visit, the Supports Planner will spend time with the child and their parent/guardian to make their Christmas special. Last year, we were able to get toys for many children that were in need. The toys were arranged for the children based on their age. Girls were given Barbie dolls, skates, board games, puzzles, books, jewelry and nail polish. The boys were given hot wheel cars, sports equipment, building sets and Lego, Action Figures, and remote-control cars. The children expressed their joy with smiles and excitement to open their new gifts.
We also had the opportunity to speak with the mothers of the children about programs to assist them in the community. Mothers received information on supportive systems to help them with child care, education, parenting and life skills. We also talked to them about free and low-cost programs such as transition housing, which some women were not aware of. All of the families were very excited about these programs because many of them did not know that there were programs that are free. The Agency will continue the tradition of gathering toys and distributing them to families that need them most. We believe that going the extra mile at the end of every year makes all the difference, especially to children.