CINCINNATI — After a long year of virtual everything for parents and kids alike, a group of nonprofit organizations are helping families unplug by giving away brand-new toys to kids.
Emily Rasnick walked to her car wiping away tears because the box full of toys for her seven-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, was the glimmer of hope she needed.
“It’s been a rough year,” Rasnick said.
The single mom said it’s been a year of struggling after she was left without a job and fighting cancer.
“I had breast cancer and we just removed all at once, so it’s been a really bad year,” said Rasnick. “I tried to do Christmas as best as I could and this means a lot,” she said.
She got to help her daughter pick from thousands of toys at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati without having to open her wallet.
“I’m sure all these gifts, somebody paid for them and they donated and they don’t understand how much that has touched certain families,” said Rasnick.
But Christie Brown said she understands.
She’s the CEO of OneSource Center, a nonprofit resource center that helped organize the event after a big donation.
“We have a partnership with an agency out of Virginia called Good 360 and they source a lot of products for us and they contacted us about toys and we said, ‘well of course,’ and we thought we were getting one truckload of toys and we got two semi-truck loads full of toys,” Brown said.
They’re also teaming up with several nonprofit groups to give out an estimated 16,000 free toys to any kid who wants one.
None of these toys have anything to do with a computer or TV screen.
“This is called ‘Unplug and Play’ so we’re really encouraging kids to unplug. Kids have been in front of their screens for school just being at home for the whole year so this is an opportunity to give them good old fashioned fun,” Brown said.
Volunteers started in June and plan to giveaway toys until the end of July.
It’s something that for families like Emily Rasnick’s means much more than you can see.
“I know people are probably like it’s just toys, but for me, it showed me that there’s people out there that care, but there’s people out there that will help you,” Rasnick said.
The last toy giveaway will be at South Avondale Elementary in Cincinnati on July 29.
