The Ridgewood Savings Bank (RSB) Forest Hills Branch partnered with several local organizations this holiday season to collect donations for a toy drive and fund several community potlucks for those in need of a meal around the holidays. Forestdale, Commonpoint and Queens Community House (QCH) coordinated with RSB for the yule-tide charity drive and successfully garnered over 100 toys and fed over 200 people in the week leading up to Christmas.
Forestdale is one of Queens’ longest-running nonprofits and can tie its history back to 1854, when it was both a trade school and home for “destitute children.” Since then, the organization has changed both names, locations and purposes several times, but always served families and children in need before eventually being conscripted to build its residential campus in Forest Hills. Forestdale now operates multiple offices in Brooklyn, providing aid to abused or neglected children, foster care and adoption services while participating in community-driven events such as the annual toy drive.
This year, over a dozen volunteers across 11 different locations from Forest Hills to Corona collected toy donations for kids up to age 13 for Forestdale. The bank made special note to thank several of its employees for volunteering for the Forestdale gift wrapping event, including Sanjida Ahmed, Doreen Dunne, Nancy Adzemovic and Ashraf Miah. RSB also accepted toy donations to be made to Commonpoint, formerly the Central Queens Y, for its winter season charity drive.
QCH, a nonprofit that provides after-school programs to young adults looking to “transition from childhood to adult life,” hosted several holiday dinners around its Central Queens sites. RSB funded two potluck dinners, at Forest Hills Community Center and P.S. 149, that were open to anyone in the community and received around 200 individuals and families who came to eat, enjoy some company or bring their own food to share with neighbors. QCH’s own toy drive, its third year in a row, was a resounding success and successfully raised a whopping 1,500 toys at the Forest Hills Stadium.
“The drive wrapped up with a joyful community event at Forest Hills Stadium, where neighbors stopped by with toys, snapped photos with Santa, and warmed up with hot chocolate. It was one of those days that really felt like the holidays,” a representative wrote on Instagram.
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In case anyone missed their chance to participate, QCH is still tripling donations made to the organization to fight food insecurity as a way of celebrating its 50-year anniversary. The link to donate can be found on both social media and the QCH website.
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