PHILADELPHIA, PA (November 17th, 2015)- Youth Action (YA), a local student-led civic engagement non-profit is kicking off its 10th annual Toy Drive. The drive seeks to spread joy and happiness to many disadvantaged families who are not able to receive gifts this holiday season. Gift collection for the drive begins Wednesday, November 18th, 2015 and ends Friday, December 18th, 2015.  Youth Action’s toy drive is done in partnership with Peirce College.

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Youth Action’s annual toy drive and Youth Action is very excited to partner with Peirce College and other community partners to support families in need this holiday season. Since 2005, Youth Action’s Annual Toy Drive has collected over 17,000 gifts for families in need during the holiday season.

For it’s 10th Annual Toy Drive, Youth Action will adopt families from a West Philadelphia shelter for women and children called HELP and provide them with holiday gifts. In addition to this, Youth Action is asking local Philadelphia families in financial need this holiday season to write a letter to Youth Action so that the organization can potentially provide families with gifts. Please note that Youth Action may not be able to provide each family in Philadelphia who sends a letter with gifts. However, YA will make an earnest effort to collect gifts for each family.

Youth Action would like to welcome contributions from the community to the drive. Interested contributors should contact Youth Action at inspire@youthactionteam.org or call 1-888-Youth90 ext 906. Also, individuals can drop gifts for children infant-17 years of age at Peirce College located at 1420 Pine Street Philadelphia, PA 19102.

Families who are looking to receive gifts from Youth Action should write a letter addressing the following:

1- Briefly describe why your family is in need of gifts this holiday season

2- Provide gift wish list for children in your family with the first name and age of each      child

3- Contact Information- Name, address, phone number, and email address (if

available)

4- The length of the letter is as long as you would like it to be

Letters from families may be emailed to inspire@youthactionteam.org or mailed to P.O. Box 22718 Philadelphia, PA 19110. For more information, please call 1-888-Youth90 ext 906. Youth Action would like to receive these letters no later than Wednesday, November 25th, 2015. 

Please note that Youth Action will do it’s best to collect gifts from each families’ wish list. However, Youth Action would like for each family to write as many attainable items for gifts on their wish list. Content of the letters will remain confidential with Youth Action and gift donations will be arranged with families for delivery in December.

Additionally, Youth Action will host a private event for families it will support at HELP in West Philadelphia in mid December. The event will feature toy distribution, food, games, and musical entertainment. Individuals interested in learning more about this event should contact Youth Action at inspire@youthactionteam.org.

Each year, Youth Action’s toy drive is spiritedly organized to impact as many families in Philadelphia. Youth Action’s Managing Director Anthony Phillips says, “it’s remarkable that this toy drive has lasted for 10 years. It started with an idea from Ginene Lewis, our team’s past president and a freshmen in college at the time, who wanted the organization to do more around aiding those who are homeless in Philadelphia.  And here we are today We are excited to give to those in need this holiday season and thankful to have the community support for this long. The middle school, high school, and college students in Youth Action are gearing up to reach out to those in their communities to make our 10th Annual Drive an amazing one! 10 years of giving is remarkable and it would not be possible without all of you.”

For more information about Youth Action’s Toy Drive please contact YA advisor Daniel Wilson at dwilson@youthactionteam.org or dial 1-888-Youth90 ext906. You can also visit our website at www.youthactionteam.org to learn more.