The Harlan Office recently participated in the Our Wish Toy Drive, a division of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  The group purchased every item on the Wish List plus many more.    As we all know, sick children are in the hospitals every day.

This division was created by a 9-year-old patient with an extremely rare form of cancer, Laura Jones.  The doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s only gave Laura a 2% chance of survival.  Fast forward six years, now Laura is 15 years old and has been in remission for a few years.  Laura’s passion was to do something helpful therefore Our Wish was born.  Laura, her family, friends and many volunteers tirelessly gather toys at various churches and businesses all year long, striving to gather toys every month, if not weekly.

In the past six years, over 18,000 toys have been collected and distributed.   All toys go directly to children at Centennial and Vanderbilt Children Hospitals in the Cancer areas.  Some children are orphans or foster children with very few possessions, several with only the clothes they come in wearing. These toys may be the only ones they receive for Christmas or throughout the year.

Our plans are to have a second toy drive during the summer of 2024, extending participation to the field personnel.