The Foster Alliance has kicked off its annual Holiday Toy Drive, collecting gifts for children, teens and young adults in Arizona’s state and tribal foster care systems.
The Foster Alliance (TFA), formerly Arizona Helping Hands, is the state’s largest provider of basic needs for foster families. The drive gives foster and kinship families the chance to experience the holidays in a dignified way — ensuring children in foster care feel valued, seen, and loved.
“Our mission is really about making it a little bit easier for the family or the household that opens up their hearts and homes to kids in foster care,” said Chief Executive Officer Maureen Noe.
“We are the conduit — because of the generosity of the community — to have gifts either for birthdays or for the holidays so that the child can receive something along with maybe the other children in the household… or when they go back to school, they could talk about, ‘Oh, for the holidays, I got this.’
“It doesn’t necessarily need to be said, ‘Oh, the Foster Alliance gave it to us’, (it can be) like, ‘it came from the family that I’m living with.’ So that sense of belonging and fitting into the family and the community is really the essence of what we’re providing.”
The Holiday Toy Drive is now open through the end of December. Those who wish to contribute can donate gifts at the Foster Alliance Phoenix location Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., or at participating locations in their community.
The Foster Alliance also accepts cash donations through their website, or alternatively, members of the community can buy gifts from the organization’s Amazon wishlist to be shipped directly to the nonprofit.
Those wanting to go beyond making a donation can host their own TFA Toy Drive. Community members can visit the Foster Alliance website to download promotional resources, pick up drive boxes and flyers at their nearest TFA location, and start collecting gifts.
The Foster Alliance will also host its annual “Fill Santa’s Sleigh” events during the first week of December. Community members are invited to drop off new, unwrapped gifts and help load Santa’s sleigh for delivery to children in foster care.
The first Fill Santa’s Sleigh event will take place Dec. 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. at The Foster Alliance’s Phoenix location. Holiday Fun at The Scottsdale Quarter will follow on Dec. 5 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., featuring hot chocolate, Santa, and a holiday wonderland.
Also on Dec. 5, the Legacy Pub Crawl at TFA’s Flagstaff location will run 6 to 11 p.m., where participants are encouraged to wear their ugliest holiday sweaters.
Donations intended for the Holiday Toy Drive should be dropped off or delivered by Dec. 19, as the Foster Alliance office will be closed the following week, according to Noe.
Last holiday season, the drive solicited enough gifts to serve over 3,800 kids. This year, they are hoping to surpass that achievement and serve 4,000 kids.
“That’d be beautiful if we could do 4,000,” Noe said. “However, if we can serve 3,800 again — if we serve 2,500 — we feel very grateful to be partners with the community to make the holidays special.”
Gifts collected from the drive are distributed at the Holiday Toy Fest, a three-day celebration from December 11th through 13th, where children and their caregivers can select gifts in a festive and dignified setting.
Foster and Kinship families are invited to attend, and those who wish to participate must sign up for dates and specific time slots in advance. Families will be asked to specify how many children they have at sign-up. Registration closes once all spots are filled.
At the Holiday Toy Fest, families are checked in and enter “Santa’s workshop,” where personal shoppers — Foster Alliance volunteers — help them carry their goods while they shop. For easy shopping, a rare occurrence during the holidays, gifts are categorized, tailored by age group and relevant interests.
Caregivers can select up to five gifts per child, and once gifts are chosen and checked out, a volunteer discreetly takes the gift bag to their vehicle. Noe explains that the process helps foster and kinship families experience the holidays with dignity.
“When the gift comes home and the child is opening it, that’s where that sense of dignity and pride and belonging happens,” she said. “It’s in those extraordinary moments that happen in real time — it doesn’t happen in our building. It happens because of the community being generous to us, us having the means, us being TFA with the volunteers, in order to provide that product back to the child.”
For those families who cannot physically attend the Holiday Toy Fest, they can request a bag through their social case worker. The case worker will submit a request the same way that a foster or kinship family would, including the children or young adults’ names, ages, and interests.
The Foster Alliance volunteers will then shop around and pack a gift bag aligned with those details. Then, either the case worker will pick up the bag, or the Arizona Department of Child Safety will distribute the bags to their respective offices.
Gifts are being collected for ages 0-21, leaving donors a large range of options to give, such as clothes and toys for infants and children, to hygiene products and practical lifestyle accessories for teens and young adults.
Noe said there is a particular need for gifts for children ages one to five and teens, who she notes usually appreciate gift cards.
“Stories from caseworkers would be, ‘You bring joy to kiddos and families and make it, really, a little bit easier for me to walk into the home,’” Noe said. “Over and over again, we hear every year, families who say, ‘You know, I didn’t know how I was going to make the holidays work for the kids that I brought into my home because times are tight, and you made it really easy. I didn’t have to choose between this and that. I can do both.’
“…Some of these families are living — even though they open up their hearts and homes — they’re living paycheck to paycheck. It’s a difficult time, and yet they’re still willing to do more.”
The Foster Alliance provides essential items like beds, clothing, birthday gifts, and school supplies year-round for foster and kinship families in Arizona and New Mexico. The Holiday Toy Drive and Holiday Toy Fest remain one of the nonprofit’s largest statewide efforts to make it easier for families to open their home to a child in foster care.
The organization has locations in Phoenix and Flagstaff, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. More information can be found on their website, thefosteralliance.org.
“We can’t do it without the generosity of the community,” Noe said. “We’re so grateful to be in partnership with the community who trusts us to pass on these valuable treasures to the foster families so the kids can have extraordinary moments.”