On December 15th, the Karsh Center joyously opened its doors to our Karsh clients and their children ages 2-10 for our 4th Annual Holiday Toy Giveaway. This year’s Giveaway was especially exciting because we were lucky enough to have collected over 1,500 toys, allowing us to serve hundreds of children and families from our community and offer an exciting experience to each child we served as they “shopped” amongst a wide variety of toys to find exactly the right one. 

When our guests walked in they were welcomed by one of our volunteer hosts who showed them around the Leanse Ratner Family Food Pantry, which was decorated as a winter wonderland, full of tables filled with various toys, all organized by age range. We had puzzles, basketball hoops and soccer balls, board games, science experiment kits, dolls, books, card games, arts and crafts kits, and many more brand-new toy options. Our guests could pick out whichever toy caught their eye from any of the tables! Our amazing volunteers dedicated hours to preparing for the event by sorting and inventorying toys, ensuring plenty of options for every age group.

After selecting their toy, the next stop was our gift wrapping station, and finally, guests had the option to take a picture at our winter wonderland photo booth, decked out with red and green balloons, a snowy backdrop, and hanging snowflakes!

We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of our sponsors and donors for this year’s Toy Giveaway. Our donors include SpinMaster, Phat Mojo, Jazwares, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and many congregants from Wilshire Boulevard Temple who donated to the Toy Drive and the Resnick Family Campus Opening Weekend event.

Thank you also to Brawerman Elementary School for decorating gift bags and the Brawerman Elementary School East Parents Association for decorating our space! 

In addition to our Karsh Center Toy Giveaway on December 15, we proudly teamed up once again with Baby2Baby to host the Family2Family program, serving dozens more children and their families with customized gifts for the holidays. Inside the bags children found their favorite colors,toys and clothing items in their size. Families enjoyed delicious cinnamon rolls donated by Ginger Bonnie and took family photos to celebrate at the event.

The Karsh Center’s end of year Toy Giveaway program once again embodied the sense of connection and celebration of our families we are proud to end the year with, and we are grateful to each and every member of our community who participated in making it possible.  

We wish you and your loved ones a beautiful holiday season on behalf of the entire Karsh Center!