The Story Behind Toys For Blessings

The current Toys For Blessings operation has grown far beyond our expectations. Four years ago several of us were making wood toys for Operation Christmas Child in our garages. That same year we were working at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center and started to discuss where the cars came from and how we could make more to fill the shoeboxes here in Orange County, California.

We had been making toy cars individually for various shoebox packing parties that needed toys to fill their boxes. We decided to hold a meeting at the start of 2014 to discuss how we could combine our efforts and increase the quantity of our toys. The discussion focused mostly on the cost of materials which were getting high. It costs us around 50 cents worth of material to produce each toy, which excludes a lot of other costs in machine maintenance. At the end of 2014 we decided as a group to incorporate as a nonprofit 501c3 organization so that we could give deductible receipts to those who offer their support. That effort took us the rest of 2015 and we are now officially Toys For Blessings, a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. As a result of our organizational efforts and continued passion, in 2014 and 2015, we were able to produce 6,350 and 13,552 toys, respectively.

We continue to receive support from our contributors, but due to our continually growing output and goals we are always seeking more help. In 2015 alone we produced 15,000 toys which were given to 28 various organizations and Orange Lutheran High School for their Operation Christmas Child packing party. For 2016 we have set a goal of 25,000 toys that we will provide to the community. Just think of a child in need getting a toy with a feeling that someone cares!