This Paramount Community Day 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the partnership between Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS) and Second Chance Toys.

Since the beginning of our collaborations, the Paramount community has given immense support behind the scenes as a Valued Supporter, as well as on the front lines, where they have saved thousands of toys from landfills and kept them in circulation and where they belong, in the hands of deserving children. 

In celebration of Community Day 2023, and in conjunction with the earlier Earth Month, Paramount hosted two far reaching yet close-to-home impactful initiatives with Second Chance Toys. 

Firstly, as spring approached and the yearly cleaning season began, Paramount families were invited to clear out their own outplayed toys sustainably with SCT. Led by the Corporate Social Responsibility Team, this initiative allowed families to make an impact from their own homes, by packing up and shipping outplayed toys directly to one of the Second Chance Toys recipient organizations. SCT hosted a short information session over video conference, and prepared a simple set of instructions for donors on which toys are acceptable to donate. Since Paramount graciously underwrote shipping, and the community was eager to make an impact in another area, this batch of toys was matched with one of SCT’s newest partners, New Beginnings 4 U Inc. of Raleigh, NC. 

Though Spring Cleaning was finished out, the demand for toys continues to grow everyday, and as always, Paramount was geared up to continue to work to fill it! This Community Day on June 14, Paramount sent a delegation of volunteers to SCT satellite toy drop-off location, Fair Lawn, NJ Recycling and Public Works. The crew spent the morning working tirelessly to screen donations in preparation to be re-circulated in the surrounding communities. This comprehensive screening included unpacking, cleaning, refurbishing, and reuniting small parts, all culminating in packing the toys up for pick-up. All together 500 toys were inspected and cleared for donation, therefore averaging about 2,000 pounds of unnecessary plastic waste diverted from landfills.  

Team co-captain Danielle Rowe-Jackson reflects on the experience: “It was truly a pleasure to work with you and your team at Second Chance Toys.  I think we all loved the idea of giving a toy another opportunity to make a child happy.” 

These items have been matched with the New Jersey Community Development Corporation of Paterson, NJ, where they will be distributed to children and families they serve in the Great Falls area of Paterson. 

“It is such an honor to be included in the Paramount Community Day lineup once again. SCT is especially proud and excited this year to have the Paramount team back out in-person with us screening toys for the first time since 2019! Feels great to be back outside, making an impact and having a great time!” says Zoe Cook-Nadel, Director of Second Chance Toys.

An entire decade, countless memories, and tens of thousands of toys later, Second Chance Toys is extremely grateful to call the Paramount CSR and the entire community part of our family. We can’t wait to see what the future holds and continue to make innovative impacts with Paramount.

Greetings SCT partner organizations! We are so honored to have each and every organization in our network joining forces to divert as much plastic from landfills, while simultaneously filling the need for toys among underserved children in the United States. Thank you all for all that you do in serving countless communities across the U.S.A., and helping our impact to grow each year! So far together the SCT family has diverted over 411,000 good-as-new toys from landfills and put them into the hands of children in need, and we can’t wait for more! 

   Now that you’ve been approved, here’s what will happen next:

   1. Your organization will be listed on our map of recipients in the U.S.A. Your short profile will tell potential donors in your area what kinds of items you’ll accept, if they can drop-off at your facility, whether or not you can pick-up toys, as well as the maximum number of toys you will accept.

   2. This profile will be visible to the public, but will only accept donation registrations twice yearly (Earth Month (April) and December for the Holiday Season).

   3. When a potential donor logs onto our website during a donation season, they will search their zip code to find a recipient organization near them to donate their toys. 

   4. Families and group toy drives (schools, community centers) will be able to register to donate to any organization in their area, as long as they have the appropriate items and quantity. Once the SCT team receives donor registrations, we will introduce you to them directly via email to swap contact info. From there you MUST be in contact with your donor(s) to arrange for a convenient pick-up or drop-off time and date. The matching email will look something like this: 

   5. You will NOT be matched with a donor who has a greater number of toys than your maximum, but you may be matched with a donor who has fewer than your request. The minimum amount of toys you should receive from a donor is 50 items. You may be matched with multiple donors. 

   6. All collectors are made aware of our donation regulations, but please be aware that some donations may not be up to standard, as noted in the Recipient Organization Release Terms.

   7. Important: Toys are never guaranteed. Due to the nature of the Second Chance Toys waste-need system, we are dependent upon our own communities to engage in circularity. There must be a toy drive or donor in your area who registers with us in order to receive donations. That being said, we encourage you to share and market your affiliation with Second Chance Toys in an effort to let your community know that you are accepting donations for the season. We also recommend making use of your official SCT recipient badge graphic, which was sent to you upon organization approval, on your website or social media channels. 

Communication is very important and we will need to be able to easily get in contact with you, so be sure to look out for any messages from the following email addresses: info@secondchancetoys.org and operations@secondchancetoys.org.The same goes once your organization is matched with a donor. You must be able to communicate easily in order to plan for a toy hand-off, be on time for the date you make in order to maintain your matching donations and the chance to receive toys in the future. 

Please feel free to contact us at either of these emails above with any questions, concerns, or to update your contact or demographic information (change of address, phone number, etc.). 

Once again, welcome to the SCT circularity network; We look forward to working with you!

            Responsibly Recycle Broken, Incomplete,

                          or Damaged Toys with

                       

First comes reduce, then reuse, and finally recycle! At Second Chance Toys, we know that not all toys are able to be recirculated. Whether they’re broken, incomplete, or damaged, some items just aren’t up to our standards to be rehomed to kids, leaving them on track to reach landfill eventually. 

With this potential waste in mind, Second Chance Toys is so proud to announce that we are now facilitating recycling initiatives in conjunction with three TerraCycle recycling programs to close the gap on plastic toy waste.

Participating in TerraCycle Recycling programs with Second Chance Toys is Easy!

1. Request a shipping label below
2. Pack up broken, damaged, or incomplete toys
3. Attach the shipping label and ship via UPS directly to the TerraCycle recycling facility.​

Please note: Reuse comes before Recycle! If you have outplayed toys that are still in good condition (complete sets, not broken or damaged, clean) please hold these out to directly rehome to children in need during Second Chance Toys donation seasons! During April (Earth Month) and December (Holiday Season) our recipient organizations are open to receive your gently-used toys. Search for a recipient organization in the U.S.A. near you and learn how to register donations for Earth Month 2023!

                        Learn more about the TerraCycle recycling process

This Holiday Season we were so excited to welcome Temple Emanu-El of Manhattan to our network of toy collectors and volunteers. Read on for a reflection from the parent who led the toy collection initiative and to learn more about the meaningful inspiration for the Mitzvah project. 

This year at Temple Emanu-el Nursery School (TENS) in Manhattan, each class was asked to propose and execute a Mitzvah Project leading up to the holiday season.  A mitzvah, in its literal translation, means a commandment, however the term mitzvah has also come to express an act of human kindness or a good deed.  TENS Class 324, which consists of 18 children ages 4 & 5 yrs old, decided their Mitzvah Project would be to collect and donate their own personal gently used toys, and connected with Second Chance Toys whose initiative aligns perfectly with purpose of the class's project.  The mission for each child was to select toys of their own (plastic and in good condition) that they were open to donating, with the express purpose of giving those toys away to other children who don't have many (or even any) toys of their own.  The class genuinely understood the message of giving something of themselves (which to a 4-5 year old child can be a toy/toys they may have once treasured!) to children who don't have the opportunities that they have, and it became a meaningful, impactful and heartwarming project for these young kids.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, they each brought in the toys they selected from home to donate, showed each one to the class, some expressed why they chose to donate them, and excitedly marked off their personal number of donations on the class's collection chart, resulting in a total collection of 56 toys altogether.  The entire donation collection was then dropped off at one of SCT’s local NYC recipient organizations, whose mission is to provide programs and services for local residents with limited resources.  This young group of kids in Temple Emanu-el Nursery School Class 324 were so happy and proud of their efforts, and the understanding that they were giving other young children in their own city the opportunity to enjoy the toys that they themselves may have previously cherished.       

Paramount is no stranger to the Second Chance Toys waste-need solution. Through different names, places, and times, this community has stayed at the top of our list as one of the most enthusiastic and devoted groups in helping us create a plastic toy circular economy. Over the years through hands-on programming Paramount employees have volunteered with us to deep clean, sort, pack, as well as send in their own donations directly to SCT accredited recipient organizations.

The Second Chance Toys team was so excited to be invited once again this year for Paramount Community Day and for the chance to host a remote and far-reaching toy drive. On June 16, Paramount employees from across the country joined the Second Chance Toys team for a live video information session, conversation, and "virtual toy drive." Employees learned about the SCT mission, history, and operations and were instructed how they could donate their pre-loved plastic toys. Paramount generously underwrote shipping costs and employees were invited to pack up their gently-used outplayed toys and ship them off to Second Chance Toys Headquarters in New Jersey. Upon arrival at SCT HQ, our team will sort and get them ready for pick-up by 2 accredited social action organizations in Newark, NJ.

We’ve heard it time and again, plastic is bad. And yes, it is! Many of the amenities that we enjoy and tools that we use everyday rely on plastic, and though it has become integral to our society, plastic still continues to pose issues in terms of pollution, waste, and climate change. Single-use plastic products are some of the easiest to use and it is some of the cheapest and most easily sourced materials in the world. Plastic shows up everywhere in our lives, whether it be part of our personal care products, food packaging, tools, or toys and games. Plastic water and soda bottles are durable, light, and pose no danger of broken glass. Plastic grocery store bags are impressively sturdy, weightless, and can be compressed down to take up barely any room when they aren’t in use. The issue arises, however, when we are done using these items; they are technically so easy to dispose of, but much of the time littering and irresponsible disposal takes place, whether on purpose or by accident. Littered plastic waste will inevitably seek the ocean. Out-of-sight and out-of-mind, right? Wrong. Plastic will never disappear and will just continue to accumulate, causing a multitude of issues on Earth. Plastic pollution¹ contributes to some of the biggest challenges that face our environment today including adverse effects on human health, the vitality of marine ecosystems, and global climate change.

Second Chance Toys’ home State of New Jersey is taking an incredible stand against plastic pollution and the hold that single-use convenience has on consumers by banning plastic bags from grocery and convenience stores as well as restaurants. Starting on May 4 the state enacted the requirements and statutes for the majority of stores to cease distribution of disposable plastic bags. To be specific, this includes grocery stores, convenience stores, and even restaurants, and bottle shops (anywhere that you might really need a plastic bag). Same goes for single-use food containers made of styrofoam. Not to mention, this isn’t the first stand that the State of New Jersey has taken in the steps against climate change. For over 6 months plastic straws have been tougher to get your hands on! If you’d like a straw for your drink at the local coffee shop or convenience store, you’ll need to ask. 

Over the past month since the ban began, lots of New Jerseyans have been understandably annoyed, as would happen with any change in routine. But as a resilient and tough, yet caring and eco-conscious group, we’re becoming perfectly accustomed to the new ban and carrying our reusable bags with pride! Much to our delight, reusable and paper straws, as well as a huge variety of reusable bags are becoming more and more popular and accessible, thus changing the NJ lifestyle for the benefit of our state’s ecological health and biodiversity. We are so proud of our home state and commend the New Jersey legislature on this momentous shift towards a more sustainable state! 

#JerseyStrong

As we reflect on the holiday season, we are so grateful for the honor to work together again with our friends at AIG and ViacomCBS. Though we’re still spending a good portion of our time together virtually, we are overjoyed that our supporters continue to recognize the value that a toy drive program brings to employees in terms of social responsibility, sustainability, and holiday giving. 

This year AIG expanded its support for our organization. Together we hosted a mail-in toy drive enabling employees anywhere in the country to give their children’s toys a second chance. AIG generously underwrote the shipping costs and ran multiple communication campaigns encouraging employees to participate. Hundreds of toys were sent to Second Chance Toys headquarters in New Jersey.

SCT stored the toys and since the turnout was so amazing, we were able to match and satisfy the need of toys for multiple organizations: the Oasis Christian Center in Rahway, NJ as well as the Creating Unity in the Community, a program serving low-income communities of Parkchester in the Bronx. A few reactive toys that light up, make noise, or move were culled and donated to Makers Making Change, NYC Chapter, for their adaptive toy hack-a-thon, a program serving kids with disabilities and varying types of motor skills throughout the city. MMC volunteers opened up the toys and added longer wires and buttons to the mechanisms. This program allows more kids to enjoy toys that they wouldn’t have been able to use otherwise. AIG provided all the toys that were donated for the first hack-a-thon, which took place in December. 

As well as the astounding volume of beautiful toys, AIG is supporting Second Chance Toys with a grant to help us continue to be able to provide such programs. We are so thankful for our AIG team and the partnership that we have in the fights against plastic waste and poverty!

ViacomCBS is one of our longest running teammates. Over the years this group has prevented literal tons of plastic toys from seeing the eternal landfill and instead guided them into the creative hands of deserving kids. 

As part of this year’s Season of Giving Program Lineup, VCBS employees and families were invited to join the SCT team for a virtual discussion about our mission, the importance of reuse and recycling, and to learn how to prepare to donate toys themselves. VCBS generously covered the cost of shipping and SCT created a do-it-yourself (DIY) donation instruction sheet to be distributed electronically to even more participants across the country. The toys were sent to our nation’s capital for the Washington D.C. National Guard Family Program, which serves thousands of military families in the area. Adam Robinson, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at VCBS, and our friend and  partner in planning reflects: "Our employees were so happy to have an experience that taught their kids and families the importance of reuse and giving in a fun and personal way.

In addition to the toys donated, devotion to the collection, and enthusiastic participants  who spread the word, ViacomCBS is awarding Second Chance Toys with a generous grant in support of our programming. We are so grateful to have ViacomCBS on our team and as always we are looking forward to our next collection together!

Second Chance Toys is so honored to have these dedicated change-makers on our team! Thank you to the AIG and ViacomCBS communities for your devotion to the mission to reduce plastic waste while helping children in need! We couldn’t do it without you!

Every year Second Chance Toys' expansive network of volunteers and supporters grows larger, and every year each individual proves to be priceless to our team in the missions against plastic waste and poverty. This past holiday season we were overjoyed to work with Kiera Dunlevy, a Manasquan High School Junior, who single-handedly coordinated a toy drive in her community. Kiera reached out directly to the SCT team to discuss her ideas and get some more information. She then registered for a recipient match and took off running! She created her own marketing, monitored donation intake for quality and volume, and transported the toys to their final destination, The Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County. Here’s how Kiera reflects on her experience:

“I chose to do a SCT toy drive for my NHS (National Honor Society) project because I loved how it combined giving back to local families for the holiday season with helping save the environment. I wasn't sure what to expect at the beginning, but I received immediate responses from local families eager to contribute to the drive when I posted my flier, many telling me how they hate just throwing perfectly good toys away. I had originally estimated getting about 50 toys but ended up getting over double that! Although it was for sure a time commitment, the general process of setting up the drive and collecting donations was pretty easy and definitely worth it. I'm glad I heard about SCT because I'm passionate about helping the environment, and it was quite eye opening seeing how much plastic may have otherwise ended up in a landfill.”

Kiera showed such superb creativity and devotion to her toy collection and we are thrilled to announce that over 100 gently-used plastic toys were donated (well over the initial estimate)! Efforts like these by high school students especially remind us of our roots and warm our hearts because SCT was founded by a teenager with a dream! The Second Chance Toys team applauds Kiera and all local teens who take on leadership roles to make a positive impact on their communities and our Earth!