Our toy drive brightened kids’ holidays

Richmond Hill children were given an early holiday treat last week as Santa doled out hundreds of presents at the South Queens Boys & Girls Club during a festive three-hour party.
&#8220Our annual Christmas party was a resounding success; we hosted and provided food and gifts for approximately 250 young people,” said the Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Leo Compton, who managed to find a minute during the event to break out his own dancing shoes and impress the crowd with a semi-split.
&#8220We are extremely grateful to all of the individuals and organizations, who made this event possible through their generous donations of presents and time,” Compton said.
The gifts - a portion of an estimated 400 collected by The Queens Courier and Citibank – ranged from games like Chutes and Ladders to Barbie dolls to remote control cars. Older kids and teenagers, up to age 18, were given gift cards to Best Buy.
The rest of the presents collected during the toy drive – about 150 – were distributed at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and Flushing Hospital Medical Center by local firefighters, said Joann Ariola, director of community relations & intergovernmental affairs for MediSys Health Network.
This year was the first time that The Queens Courier and Citibank partnered with the two hospitals, both of which are part of MediSys Health Network. In addition, this was the first year that firefighters gave out the toys at the hospitals for the holidays.
Jack Carney, a former Fire Marshall and one of the administrators of MediSys, suggested the idea earlier this year, and three engine companies were called up to play Santa on Friday, December 22.
For 12-year-old Sergio Arias, the toys - a soccer ball and a game – brought a welcome distraction from his hospital stay, his mom Jennifer Guillet said. Arias had been admitted to Flushing Hospital just one day before the toy distribution party for a possible appendicitis, and during the holiday visit, he was waiting to see if he would need the operation the following day, on his thirteenth birthday.
&#8220I feel so sad for him,” Guillet said. &#8220I don’t want him to be here for his birthday.”
To make Arias’ gift a bit more personal, firefighters from Engine 274 and hospital staff autographed his soccer ball in silver ink, so that the pre-teen would have something to remember his hospital visit.
During the firefighters’ visit, Guillet also found out that doctors had just finished an appendicitis operation on an eight-year-old boy, Iraj Raza, who was already awake and hoping to play only hours after the surgery was finished. The firefighters jokingly tried to recruit both boys to play soccer in the hospital hallways.
&#8220Thank goodness,” Guillet said when she heard about Raza. &#8220That makes me feel so much better.”
At Jamaica Hospital, firefighters from Engine 270 and Engine 126, which is sharing the firehouse at Atlantic Avenue on 121st Street, had to make a quick stop to put out a small fire on their way to the hospital, but once they arrived, they immediately began handing out dozens of toys to the sick kids.
&#8220It makes you feel good when you see the smiles on their [the patients’] faces,” said Lt. Chrisopher Rigoli from Engine 270.
After all the toys had been handed out, there were still a few plush animals and games left over to put in the Jamaica Hospital’s new playroom for future patients.