Toys for Children

First off, I apologize for the missing posts, but I was definitely feeling under the weather. Still not feeling 100% but am almost their. :-)

Today, I will be talking about Child's Play Charity. This is a charity whose mission is to donate gaming systems, games, and toys to hospitals and children who are at the hospitals. I remember when my brother was in the hospital when we were younger, he was only allowed one stuffed animal (their fur and stuff attracts germs, not good, and I don't remember them having games like this. I'm sure that having Playstations or Wiis for the children to play with would be wonderful and keep them from being bored and unhappy in the hospital.

While the majority of the hospitals are located in the USA, they also have hospitals in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom, and one in Egypt; they are expanding as they find people willing to help organize with hospitals around the world. "With over 70 partner hospitals and more arriving every year, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play partners everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, so please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own."

You can help wither through donating money to the organization, to a hospital to purchase needed items, or purchasing items from their wishlist and shipping them via Amazon. They try to keep their administrative costs as low as possible, often being only 2-3% of their over all budget, but "there is a slight administrative cost that does get paid for with donations (for example, shipping $200,000 worth of Nintendo DS’ to dozens of hospitals worldwide is not free, sadly)." They do try to keep the costs as low as possible, by not having lots of staff or big offices that they think are unnecessary.

You can also help this charity through Giving Works, a program of Ebay where people can sell items and have the proceeds be donated to a charity. You can also search for sales benefiting charities you like and purchase those items to support your charity. Its a pretty interesting concept, but I haven't used it, If you have or someone you know has let me know what you think. :-)

Well, that is today's post. I like this organization because I think it is important to remember that children need more than just medicine or research on illnesses, if they are sick they need to be entertained and happy which is what Child's Play Charity does for kids in the hospital. :-)