BEDFORD- The Indiana Pacers and the Indiana Fever brought huge smiles to children at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County on Thursday with the Big Toy Giveaway. Kids cheered as Freddy Fever, the mascot of the Indiana Fever, rode in on a skateboard to hype the crowd. After a few words from the Mayor of Bedford and representatives from the teams, a curtain was drawn back to reveal the surprise the children had waiting for them: toys.
This is the 14th year the Pacers and Fever have handed out toys to youth all around the state of Indiana and they plan to give more than half a million toys this season alone. It takes over 150 volunteers from all over the organizations to sort and ready the toys for distribution to communities all over the state.
On hand to celebrate the event were the Mayor of Bedford, Sam Craig, Police Chief Terry Moore, and members of the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County.
“The donation of 2,000 toys is incredible, and we are grateful that Bedford and Lawrence County are being served with this partnership”, said Mayor Craig in his opening remarks.
“It all started with a line email,” stated Frank. They told us we were going to receive 2,000 toys. Frank was appreciative and excited about the news of the Pacers and Jakks Pacific Inc.’s great generosity. Frank was anticipating small toys and could not wait for their arrival to give them to the children.
“We knew about the toy giveaway being here,” said Frank Decker, Chief Professional Officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County, “but we were so surprised to see a semi with 9 skids of toys stacked to the ceiling”. The gym was brimming with thousands of name-brand toys, like Disney, for the kids to choose from. The most popular choices? Skateboards for the boys and a large, blue horse that resembled Frozen 2 Else’s spirit horse for the girls that was rideable.
“We love to see that all kids are equal here at this event”, Decker said. The staff works very hard to hit one of the daily goals of the club, and that is to always make all kids feel they are equal. And on this day, they were able to do that, all kids were able to select a toy of their dreams. The event was open to all members of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County, with over 100 children in attendance.
In the following days, the remaining toys will be distributed to the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County off-site campuses located at Lincoln, Oolitic, and Shawswick elementary schools. The club will then begin to partner with nonprofit organizations in Lawrence County, such as Becky’s Place to organize a toy drop-off for their children.
