Joyful and Triumphant: Wrapping Up the 5th Annual Holiday Toy Drive

The Skylight Foundation and its dedicated partners have come together to make this year’s Toy Drive another one for the record books. Thousands of contributions came in from across Ohio to aid our mission of giving less fortunate families the gift of joy this holiday season.

Our Cincinnati office was able to raise just shy of $1,000 for this incredible cause during its Happy Hour Fundraiser at Hoppin’ Vines Brewpub. “We cannot thank the Hoppin Vines and Delicio’s Pizza staff enough for their contributions to this awesome event!” said Trisha Rutherford.

The Dublin office hosted their annual “Touch-A-Truck” event last week as well. Families enjoyed assisting the Washington Township Fire Department in packing up all 300 donated toys and celebrated by giving children an up-close tour of a working firetruck! “In the end, we were able to raise over $3,000 for this incredible cause,” said operations assistant Brandy Good, “a huge thank you to our friends at the Truman Boulevard Target and the kind men and women of Firehouse 95 for making all of it possible!”

This year, Toledo’s “Breakfast with the Officers” event saw its largest turnout to date! The Skylight team welcomed Twenty police officers from both the Toledo and Sylvania Township departments to enjoy breakfast before presented them with hundreds of donated toys and $3,000 check to go towards assisting the less fortunate! “This would have not been possible without the help of Mike Buganski, Tom Gallagher and Jennifer Erickson for their help putting everything together as fellow elves” said operations coordinator Mary Gensler. “And a huge shout out to Kathy Kawczynski, Crystal Lead, Sandy Bernthisel, Sandy Fowler, Chris Ghaffarian and Mark Greenblatt for helping me with the toy collecting and the packing and unloading of several cars!”

Finally, Cleveland’s Networking event and toy drive saw another great turnout this year. More than 100 people gathered at the Skylight Penthouse for food, libations, and stirring speeches from the Cleveland Police Foundation. The Skylight team and its contributors were able to increase their quality per toy since last year’s record of 3,500 donations, bringing this year’s number to more than 3,000 gifts for children across the community! In addition, the Skylight Foundation also teamed up with A Special Wish Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to “adopt” 13 families with children that are battling devastating illnesses. “Each child wrote a letter telling Santa what they want for Christmas, once the letter got to Saint Nick we helped collect all the presents for each family! We are honored to help bring magic into the lives of these brave young kids. Seeing the look on the parents faces during this event is beyond rewarding and something I look forward to every year” said Jonathan Goldston. “A special thanks goes out to Platform Beer, Rebol, Steelyard Commons Target, Townhall, Penthouse Events, Capt. Keith Sulzer, and the entire Cleveland Police Foundation for helping us put thousands of smiles on children’s faces across Ohio” said Michelle Arch.

For all of you who attended these events, donated to our cause, or supported our mission over the last 5 years, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. From all of us here at the Skylight Foundation—Happy New Year!