I know, I know—you read the above title and you’re thinking I’ve lost my mind, right? You’re still trying to figure out what exactly to do with all that leftover Halloween candy, and you haven’t even started to think about the seating arrangements for Thanksgiving dinner; how can I be talking about Christmas already? Well, it’s a funny, touching story actually….
Now Is The Perfect Time To Donate Gently Used Toys To Horizon Goodwill
My eight year old daughter, Kaitlyn, who by this point you’ve heard quite a deal about, has a playroom. Said playroom is located right off of Daddy’s office, which, I guess in retrospect, wasn’t the best thought out plan in the world. It kind of makes it sound like I had any say in that when we moved in over a year and half ago, and I really wish I would have put my foot down when my wife declared “Look, Kaitlyn, this is a perfect area for all your toys!” Yes, if I would’ve only spoken up right then and there perhaps I wouldn’t have the pleasure of putting my foot down on various Barbie dolls, Scooby-Doo action figures and the most painful toy of all, the rouge Lego piece.
Overall, I think I’m a pretty good Dad, but sometimes, and all father’s can relate to this, it’s really hard to bite your tongue—especially when you have a hard chunk of colorful molded plastic embedded in your bare foot. “Kaitlyn! You’ve got to start putting your toys away! Where did you get all this stuff anyway?” She looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and matter-of-factly stated “Daddy, you know most of this stuff Santa Claus gave me. I hope he brings me more this year!” Folks, I have to tell you, I wanted to crawl under a rock. The pain in my heel was nothing compared to the pain in my melting heart as I realized my little girl wasn’t a malicious villain trying to inflict pain on a old man; she was just a child looking forward to the Holiday Season.
I sat down, extracted the Lego from my foot, handed it over and she placed it on top of the castle she was building. She smiled, very proud of her creation. “You know, Kaitlyn, you have an awful lot of toys here. If Santa brings you more stuff this year, where are you going to keep it? I mean, the playroom’s not that big…and I know there’s toys in here you’ve barely touched. Look at that entire wall over there. Some of that stuff was only played with once.”
Her sweet, puppy dog eyes followed my pointing figure over to the side of the room. “Daddy, that’s the stuff I started putting aside to donate to Horizon Goodwill. I know other kids would want to play with it, and I’m sure Santa checks in with Goodwill stores all over to see what he can find and deliver…doesn’t he?” Readers, it was like kicking a man when he’s down. All the wind went out of my lungs.
“Of course he does, Sweetie. So you’re going to donate all of those toys against the wall to Horizon Goodwill?” Kaitlyn gave me a sincere smile. “Yeah, Daddy, I want to.”
I stood up, held out my hand. “Come on.” Her little fingers reached up to mine. “Where are we going?” It was my turn to smile. “First, we’re going to go online and make sure those toys are able to be donated. Sometimes certain items can’t be accepted.” She seemed a bit confused by this, so I continued “It’s ok, I’ll explain it once we visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission website. Then, we will go to Horizon Goodwill to donate what we can…and, after that, I was thinking ice cream…but don’t tell your mother!”