December, 4th 2009 marks Charlottesville’s 21st annual Toy Lift.

This year we are helping 3,468 local children have a happy holiday. We truly could not do this without the support of the community. We hope to see you all Friday 12/4 from 7AM-8PM at the Fashion Square Mall. We will be collecting toys, books and games at Fashion Square Mall and we will be sorting them at “Toy Land” so they will all be distributed by Sunday.

You can read more here about the Toy Lift.  www.kidslift.org

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Thanks again to you all! It’s gratifying that the Charlottesville area community comes together every year for this event. Thank you!

The 21st annual Toy Lift is less than two weeks away! This year’s event will be held Friday, 12/4 from 8-8 at the Fashion Square Mall. We will also be sorting and shipping the toys, books and games collected at Toy Land 12/4-12/6. We will be serving 3,468 area children this year.

Want to volunteer at Toy Lift?  http://bit.ly/toylift or email Walker at toylift@gmail.com.
 
Some of the most requested toys are: bikes, dolls & Barbies, cars & trucks, remote control vehicles, board games, stuffed animals and arts and crafts. Also, we always need items for middle school aged children (jewelry, electronics, music, and sports equipment) Popular characters this year are: Bakugan, Dora the Explorer, Hannah Montana, Moxie Girls, Spiderman, Transformers & WWE Wrestlers
 
Most requested books: “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, “Where the Wild Things Are”, and “New Moon”.
 

Still not sure what to donate?  Want to do more than just one toy or book?  How about adopting a family?
 
Adopting a family means putting together an entire package.  A package consists of a main toy, a secondary toy, stocking stuffers, books, and a stuffed animal for each child in the family and an activity the family can do together.  Adoptions need to be dropped off at Gold’s Gym by Dec 2nd.
 
If you think you might like to do a family package, e-mail Cindy at cindypayne@kidslift.org.  Tell her you would like to adopt a family.  You may also specify size of family (how many kids), and any preferences such as age range or genders.  You can also request a family in a specific district (Charlottesville, Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson or Orange).
 

Already have a toy, book or game to donate and can’t make it to the Lift? You can drop it at one of our early drop off locations. Gold’s Gym, VA Institute of Chiropractic, Anytime Fitness-Crozet, Union Bank & Trust (all area branches), and Airport Auto Exchange.

Thanks for your continued support!

These are some of the volunteer opportunities for 2009. Please review the descriptions below and fill in the following form with your preferences. We will do our best to match you to your desired position, but please be flexible.   Please email us with specific questions.

Fill out the Volunteer Form here.

Fashion Square Mall Greeters – Greet cars and collect toys from the drive-up lanes.
Collection Tent -
Count, Sort & Box toys to be shipped to the Distribution Center.
Site Runners – Run errands and messages on and off site (must have a car)

Distribution Center aka Toy Land:

Sorters – Unload toys sent from the site and sort out into categories at the warehouse.
Wish List Searchers – Search for specific items that are tagged for specific children.
Wish List Sorters – Organize the items tagged for specific children into school groups.
Food runners – Pick up food donations and bring them back to the warehouse.
Food servers- Set up and serve food to Volunteers.
Volunteer greeter- (must be able to do at least 4 hour shifts) Direct volunteers where to check in and hand out name tags.
Saturday/Sunday, Dec 5th & 6th: Distribution Center aka Toy Land

Checkers – Verify boxes for each family and mark as complete or not.
Packers – Build, Seal, & label boxes for each family.
Shipping – Load trucks with boxes to be shipped out to the schools.
Wish List – Retrieve wish list items for each child to be added to boxes.
Volunteer greeter- (must be able to do at least 4 hour shifts) Direct volunteers where to check in and hand out name tags.

Hello friends of the Toy Lift! Please join us for a volunteer meeting Tuesday 11/17 at 6:30 at the English Inn. Papa John’s pizza will be provided.

See you there!

Want to volunteer but can’t come to the meeting? Email us @ toylift@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Hello Charlottesville, the Toy Lift Board will be meeting tonight to discuss out 21st annual Toy Lift! Do you want to be a part of our advisory board, be a sponsor or have a great idea for us?

Please contact us!

Thanks for your continued support!!

Toy Lift Board

We are thrilled to announce the Bama Works Foundation, aka the Dave Matthews Band, has contributed 2,500 to the Kids Lift Foundation. This will help us to purchase lots of new books for local children.

Click here for the full list of charities that benefited from their generosity.

Thanks to Bama Works!! And thanks to all of you that help us with your time, money and donations. We could not pull this off every year without all of our wonderful community support!

Many thanks,

KLF Board

How would you like a chance to see U2 live at Scott Stadium and while helping the Toy Lift at the same time? IT IS POSSIBLE!! We are selling raffle tickets for a chance to win 2 U2 tickets (valued at $98 apiece) Raffle tickets are only $20. Only 200 tickets being sold, so chances are good. All monies raised go to ToyLift (www.kidslift.org). Drawing held on Sept 1.

Email Cyndi for more info.

Come see the the Toy Lift in the 60th Annual Dogwood Parade! Elves are working hard to build a new Gingerbread House for Santa. Please come to the parade to see the progress they have made.

Hello everyone!

The Toy Lift needs your help! We are looking for advisors to help us with volunteer coodination, food planning, event planning and media outreach, among other things.

Interested? Please email us or call 434-975-TOYS.

Hello friends of the Toy Lift! We have now found more ways to inform you of our mission and more ways for you to help us help area children! You can now join our cause on facebook, and follow us on twitter, this blog and our website.

We look forward to giving updates of our progress as we head towards our 21st annual Toy Lift.

Thanks for your continued support!

KLF Board