Two Brookline housing organizations are banding together for the third time to bring holiday cheer to children of families in need.
The Brookline Housing Authority and the Brookline Community Development Corporation organized their annual Brookline Holiday Toy Drive to provide toys to low-income families.
“This is the time of the year where it’s just beautiful when people can come together and have something to celebrate,” said Danielle Mendola, the BHA’s resident services program director. “[It’s great] to see your kid’s face light up when they get something fun, and not just the basic needs.”
Donations are being accepted through Dec. 15 at five drop boxes: at the Brookline Police Department, United Parish and the three Public Library of Brookline branches. The BCDC also accepts online donations to go toward buying gift cards for families so they can shop for gifts themselves.
The organizations host holiday parties to distribute the donated toys to parents, who can choose which toys to give to their children. The BCDC is hosting a holiday party for BHA residents Dec. 22 at United Parish.
BCDC Board President Deborah Brown said the organizations aim to create a “party atmosphere” for families to forget what’s going on in their lives for a short time.
She said the toy drive is more important now than ever, and she wants more residents in Brookline to know what their donations are helping.
“I’ve talked to some people, and they get it. They get that kids should have Christmas,” Brown said. “What they don’t get is that we’re doing this because people are housing insecure. They’re now food insecure. They’re going to be weather insecure and mental health stressed.”
Brown discussed various factors that make the holidays challenging for families, such as the inclement weather and the juggling of utilities payments as a result. She said this year, food and housing insecurity have become larger problems, given the delay on SNAP payments last month and threats to funding for Section 8, the rental assistance program.
The BHA and BCDC are both members of the Brookline Community Foundation-led coalition to combat the SNAP delays in Brookline.
BHA Executive Director Ben Stone said with challenges to the social safety net, the toy drive is a way to bring people joy when they are under strain.
“Brookline is, overall, an affluent community, and we want to make sure that our residents can also participate alongside their classmates in the holiday season,” Stone said.
The Brookline Police Department, Public Library of Brookline and AFSCME Local 1358, the union representing various Town of Brookline employees, are also partners on the toy drive.
Jessica Steytler, a librarian at the Brookline Village library and a member of AFSCME, said the drive is an important way to help those who are struggling from “falling deeper into dark places,” especially during the holiday season when there are expectations around gift giving.
She said it’s been “really gratifying” to see the library’s donation box fill up quickly after she empties donations to make room.
“As a union member, it is really important to me to provide assistance because as a collective unit, we can do more together than an individual can,” Steytler said. “That’s the spirit of the union, and so it’s really important to show what good the union can do.”
David Hill, a lieutenant in community relations for BPD, said this is the department’s second year doing the housing organizations’ toy drive after collaborating with Toys for Tots for several years. He said the department wanted to focus its efforts more on the Brookline community as opposed to working with a regional partner.
“We did want to make sure that our efforts were going to help people in our communities, people that we already have a relationship with, people that might be in need in times around the holidays,” Hill said.
Brown said the drive is a way to make those who are struggling feel like they’re part of the community. What reminds her why she does the drive each year is the father who arrives to pick up toys five minutes after closing because he just got off work, or the parents eating holiday cookies at the party, enjoying a much-needed moment of rest.
“We just want people to have some sense of hope and know that their neighbors care,” Brown said. “It’s not just a toy drive. It’s saying, ‘Your neighbors see you. Your neighbors care about you.’”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.