Dozens stopped by News4JAX on Nov. 30 for our Channel 4 Toy Drive — an effort to ensure children in our community have gifts for the holidays.
The people who stopped by said the toy drive truly warms their hearts. Community members donated toys ranging from bicycles, to dolls and footballs, to stuffed animals and more!
Related: Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville is hosting its free toy giveaway event on Saturday | Nominate an individual to win the Positively JAX Award!
News4JAX counted all of the donated items and here is the breakdown of what we received:
- 2,771 toys
- 58 built bikes (and 43 bikes that need to be built)
- 28 helmets
That’s a total of 2,900 smiles News4JAX will put on faces on Saturday, Dec. 9 at the Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville!
Related: 🔒List: Here are the best Christmas light displays & events around Northeast Florida
During our toy drive, the owner of American Transmission saw our broadcast and decided to donate 40 bikes — a bike for every year they’ve been in business.
“He gave me a call and told me, ‘Mark, I want to get 40 bicycles and carry them, and donate them to the children and give back to the community,’” said Mark Speed with American Transmission. “The children are where everything starts so we were happy to do that.”
Others said it’s something they’ve done for years, saying they know there are a lot of kids out there who have parents going through a hard time and they’re going to be very pleased.
“It means obviously that they’ll have presents they may not have gotten so it’s a feel-good thing,” one donor said.
Summit Contracting Group, the group building an apartment building across the street from Channel 4, decided to donate toys as well.
“We thought this was a perfect opportunity to just to get it started, bring some gifts help out the kids in the community and make those community relationships,” Lindsey Collier, Marketing Coordinator, Summit Contracting Group, said.
Click here for more information about the toy distribution event.