Presents for Pediatrics

Toys providing happiness and relief to patients

Background Information

Zoe Jacobs lives in Irvington, New York which is located approximately 30 minutes outside of New York City.  She attended the Alzar School in the spring of 2018.  Ever since she was little, she has dreamed of becoming a pediatric doctor and having the ability to help children who are sick.  Zoe is constantly searching for ways to get involved with local medical centers and hospitals, so for her CLP she knew she wanted to do something to help children who are facing medical crises.

She decided to work with the Ronald McDonald House, a non-profit organization that provides families with children in the hospital a place to stay so that families can stay together and support each other while their loved one is being treated.  They offer home-cooked meals, private bedrooms, playrooms, support services, education services and much more. These services are either free or cost less than $25 per day depending on the income of the specific family. Zoe sold bracelets to raise money in order to buy new toys to donate to the Ronald McDonald house in New York City.

“I wanted to find a way to help out my community that involved my passion for pediatric medicine, and this CLP was the perfect way to accomplish this.” – Zoe Jacobs

Implementation of Project

To start, Zoe contacted the Ronald McDonald house and asked for a list of toys that they find are the most wanted by the kids.  Zoe originally planned to hold toy drives to collect used toys to donate, but she learned that the house preferred new toys because the children rarely have the opportunity to receive unused toys and they were better due to health risks with the used toys. She decided to instead customized bracelets to buy in bulk to sell to raise money to buy the new toys. After she and her action team worked to sell the bracelets and raise money, she went to many stores including walmart, target, barnes and nobles, and amazing savings and found the best way to spend her money that would allow her to donate the most toys possible.

One weekend in December, Zoe packed all the toys into the car and drove to the Ronald McDonald house to deliver the toys. She wanted to make sure the toys were delivered around the holidays so the kids would the have gifts to open for the holidays.

“It was definitely challenging when I learned I would have to change how I was going to collect the toys, but my action team was really helpful in finding solutions to the problem.” – Zoe Jacobs

Results of Project

Zoe is really happy with how the project turned out. They were able to raise over $700 which helped her buy approximately 80 toys. This money allowed her to provide happiness and relief to patients at the Ronald McDonald House. She and her action team spent a lot of time planning, collecting donations, buying toys, and much more.

“I hope that the presents were able to put a smile on the kids faces and make their holiday season a little bit brighter.” – Zoe Jacobs

What’s Next

While this was planned to be a one time event, Zoe hopes to continue this project again and collect more toys to donate for not only the holidays, but gifts for the children’s birthdays and other occasions too. She continues to use many of the skills she learned at Alzar School and during this CLP while volunteering at Open Door Medical Center.  She hopes to continue to use these skills in other ways and continue to impact her community in positive ways.

“Overall, I am really happy with how this CLP tuned out and hope to continue giving back to my community.” – Zoe Jacobs