Our 300,000th Toy Donated for the Holidays

This holiday season marked the milestone 300,000th toy donated by Second Chance Toys. The 300,000th toy came from a collection at Evergreen Elementary School in Scotch Plains, NJ, under the direction of principal, Colleen Haubert, With the help of the PTA and their Kids Care group, Evergreen has been participating in collections with Second Chance Toys for the last 10 years. The community has come to expect the collections, saving up their outgrown plastic toys for the twice-yearly program. At each of their one-hour collections the school brings in an average of 500 toys.

The 300,00th toy, along with the other toys collected at the school, made its way to the Vince Lombardi Center of Hope, located in Newark, NJ, the city where Second Chance Toys made their very first donation 12 years ago.

Bronna Lipton, Executive Director, Second Chance Toys, recalls their first ever toy donation, "We will never forget the feelings of excitement and how thrilled everyone was to receive our good-as-new plastic toys. We could have never imagined, that the donation would not only lead to our becoming a nonprofit serving organizations all over the country, but that we would be back in Newark a dozen years later donating our 300,000th toy," she continued.

Toys were delivered with the help of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, who over the last decade has generously volunteered their trucks, manpower and time to transport supersized collections for Second Chance Toys. Without their participation, Second Chance Toys would not be able to manage large-scale donations. "Their involvement is key," noted Lipton.  "Because of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, so many more children are able to reap the social, emotional and developmental benefits that playing with toys provides, and they help keep thousands of pounds of plastic out of our landfills," she added.