Jackson children start toy drive for local children’s hospitals
By Staff Report
Mackenzie and Michael Wight are no strangers to tragedy. In 2006, while spending their summer in Jackson with their grandmother, Susan Ivanitski, they were involved in a serious car accident, leaving both children with severe traumatic brain injuries. Their grandmother did not survive.
Last year, due to their amazing recovery with help, therapy and support from Children’s Specialized Hospital in Toms River, they were chosen to represent the state of New Jersey as Children’s Miracle Champions. While holding this position, Mackenzie and Michael traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet President Obama at the White House, as well as taking another trip to Disney to meet with the many sponsors of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Since their reign as Champions has ended, the children have continued to be involved in helping to support their hospital that did so much for them. This winter, they are taking part in collecting donations for the Children’s Specialized Hospital Holiday Toy Drive. Thanks to the incredible support from local businesses like, Farley’s Ice Cream, TBS Barbershops, ShopRite of Jackson, Jackson Elks, Dance Energy and The Karate Dojo, bins will be out and available to collect donations for both long-term care children, inpatients and outpatients of Children’s Specialized Hospital.
Some items from the wish list are as follows: Who Lives Where Memory and Matching Game, Trouble, Apples to Apples, iTouches, New Games for Wii, Baby Rattles, Ring Stackers, Rolls of Stickers, Matchbox cars, small balls, small character themed figures and action figures. Many items are needed for the families that have lengthier stays at the hospital, such as: toiletries, toothbrushes, adult-sized pajama pants and tops (for men and women), sizes M-XXL
Gift cards are also accepted to places like Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, and Best Buy. Bins will be readily available at the locations listed above no later than November 4th. Final pick up will be on December 21st. Three Jackson Girl Scout Troops will also be available to pick up donations from your location or home: Junior Girl Scout Troop #112, contact Amy Slusak at 732-804-3456 for pick up. Brownie Troop #110, contact Sharon Anderson at 732-552-5843 for pick up, and Brownie Troop #33, contact Patti Hewitt at 732-691-8258 for pick up.
You can contact The Wight Family, Aaron, Nicole, Mackenzie & Michael for more information about the toy drive and how your family or business can participate at 908-510-9413 or nwight1@aol.com. The Wight Family sincerely thanks the supportive community for helping these sick children in need this holiday season! “People should donate the toys because the long-term care kids can get lonely, and many of the toys are old or worn. The kids could really use some new ones to make them smile for the holidays!” said 11 year old Mackenzie.
Posted by Staff Report
on Nov 12 2011. Filed under Community News, Featured News, photos.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
