Brooklyn's Children of the City Charity Donates 890 Holiday Gifts

With one out of every three families living belowtoy drive had secured many donations and so they
poverty levels in Brooklyn, New York, one of thehad organized events for gift wrapping. Most of the
charitable foundations called Children of the City andtoys were scheduled to arrive by a certain day,
donated 890 new toys to children in need during theirwhen a dozen volunteers from NYCares were
annual "Just One Gift' campaign. Kids weresupposed to help wrap the toys. It was carefully
encouraged with motivational sayings to seeplanned so that each volunteer would have plenty to
themselves and their unique talents, abilities, time, anddo.
acts of service as gifts to the ones they love and toUnfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. Grey
the world.skies and stormy clouds caused delays as snow,
People from New York and around the country opensleet and rain hit the tri-states. Not even half of the
up their hearts and generously donate toys to bring adeliveries made it to the charity's headquarters in
smile to many a young person's face at the Childrentime for the events. Sixty willing and able gift
of the City's annual "Just One Gift" toy drive inwrappers from Volunteer NYC, Old Navy, and several
December in Brooklyn, New York. The kids receivehigh school students, patiently waited for the toys.
motivational gifts and encouragement.Just in time Rocco Basile's family car pulled up like
Here's why. In Brooklyn alone there are 17 thousandSanta's sleigh with a numbger of hot toys and 12
cases of child abuse with a 48 percent high schoolRazor scooters purchased by the Basile Builder's
drop out rate. Of about 30 thousand students, 15Group business associates,family and friends. Rocco
thousand are dropouts. One out of every threeBasile spent the prior weeks soliciting toys from
families lives below the poverty line. Believe it or not,anyone who would listen.
some of the children even wear sandals during theVolunteers were happy to get busy and wrap up
cold winter. There are drugs, disease, gang violenceBarbie, Bratz and Hannah Montana dolls that would be
and crime, along with about a thousand deathshanded out to the children.
annually.More than eight companies and organizations gave
Four years ago Rocco Basile was seeking volunteertoys, while there were 89 people volunteering to
his time to a charity that helps children in need andwrap gifts over a three day period. A total of 890
decided to join the Board of this organization to helpnew toys were donated, and there were 100 bags
do something about these statistics. Why? Becauseof assorted groceries to distribute to those in need.
the problems were happening right in his own back400 children ages 4-15 attended the annual holiday
yard in Sunset Park. The charity work that thisevent which included 76 volunteers who were visiting
wonderful charitable foundation did was a perfect fitfrom Virginia and Ohio. The children learned at the
for Rocco Basile.event that gifts are not just items purchased with
"There are hundreds of people in need ofmoney for charity donations. The children were
intervention, children in need of education as well asencouraged with motivational quotes to see
families in need of counseling. Our motivational quotethemselves and their unique talents, abilities, time, and
is that Children of the City is an organization making aacts of service as gifts to the ones they love. They
difference," said Basile.were also encouraged to forge ahead amidst their
However this year, the annual toy drive ran into anmany challenges; to believe in themselves and to
unforeseen obstacle course when schedulingmake the right choices to positively affect their lives
problems caused a benefactor to push back theand their community.
delivery date on a pledge for 300 toys. This year's