A Day at Sandy's Toy Shoppe

Weeks after Hurricane Sandy, electricity has been restored, gasoline available, and the television cameras gone. Yet there are countless families who remain displaced, whose new normal is no longer living in the house they used to call home.

Yesterday (Sat 12/15/12) I had the opportunity to go work a day in Sandy’s Toy Shoppe, helping to hand out new toys for  Christmas to New Jersey families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. During those 6 hours, I met some incredible families with some incredible stories. I wanted to write about yesterday while it is still fresh in my mind.

Several weeks earlier, we also had prepared for Hurricane Sandy in southern PA. We heeded the warnings of extended power outages, filled up the cars with gas, filled the water jugs, got the coolers, flashlights and supplies ready and anxiously waited. When we woke up the next morning, we turned on our lights, looked out the window, and asked “That’s it?” And then we turned on the TV news, and  over the next hours and then days, we learned  what had happened to those in NJ and NY who had received the full punch of the storm.

Our small involvement started when in the aftermath, a New Jersey toy store owner solicited an ASTRA bulletin board for vendors who would be willing to donate toys to storm relief.  This toy store owner had made the decision to focus her upcoming Christmas season not on her own store’s holiday sales, but instead on how she could brighten the Christmas of all the families in the area who had lost much of what they owned to the storm. 

Well how does anybody say no to that?  We didn’t think twice about shipping a carton of games for the effort. Yet it didn’t feel like enough, and we began to wonder if there was a way to do more.  We looked at the map and realized it wasn’t that far of a drive from our south central PA location to the Jersey shore.  Maybe they could use an extra pair of hands for a day to help out.

When we told our two sons of the plan, our younger son went up to his room, pulled out  $20 that he had been holding back for some undefined charitable cause, and  announced he wanted to contribute to Sandy’s Toy Shoppe.  The older son agreed to contribute some unused gift cards to the cause.  As we shared our proud moment with friends and family, they started adding funds to the donation. We again emailed the organizer – would they prefer the money, or that we use it to shop for toys to bring. She asked us to go shopping. Our younger son had the duty of picking out the Hot Wheels items, and he took it very seriously, making sure to avoid expansion items that required other sets.

And so yesterday (Sat 12/15), I woke up early to make the 3 hour drive to NJ. And I’ll never regret it. I met some incredible families with some incredible stories. Here were a few of the more memorable moments.

-          The family who had their basement flooded, went without electricity for 14 days, and sustained $25K of damage to their home.  Yet they described their circumstances as fortunate compared to other families.

-          The mother who was excited to find new wooden blocks for her 4 year old son. Building with blocks had been his favorite activity, but they got soaked in the flood and had to be thrown away.

-          The family whose home was damaged beyond repair and scheduled for demolition the day after Christmas.

-          The mother whose young children were asking what was happening as they watched their flood-damaged possession be loaded onto a truck for the dump. The mother had no idea how to explain, so she told them their toys were being taken to be cleaned. (It was so uplifting to see her walk out of Sandy’s Toy Shoppe with some new clean toys for her children.)

-          The mother who was delighted to find a hippity hop boy for her autistic son to replace the one that was lost.  (as a parent of two sons with Asperger’s, I could certainly empathize with how much harder the disruption in routine can be on such a child)

-          The family whose home is uninhabitable and will not be livable again for a year.

-          The families who chose their toys carefully, not wanting to add to the imposition to the family or friends who have taken them in until they can repair or replace their homes.

Needless to say, it was a day that I will never forget.

And if anyone reading this ever finds themself anywhere near Fair Haven NJ someday, there is a toy store there called Distinctive Toys.  Think about stopping in. The owner is named Margaret. While I’ve only met her once face-to-face, I will tell you that she is a very kind person. Any toy store owner willing to spend December weekends giving away toys instead of selling them is worth the time to pay a visit to.