ALTON -The Mid-Town Moms organization recently held their sixth annual toy drive for children across the Riverbend area, and despite having to make changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the drive once again was a resounding success.
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Over 300 children received Christmas gifts of toys and goodie stockings, and in fact, had so much candy left over that the group made goodie bags for their Christmas party, which was held at the YWCA building in Alton, where the group have their offices.
The group was founded in 2010 as a blog called Riverbend Moms, where family-friendly events and stories about how to find resources for help in the area were published. The group eventually became Mid-Town Moms in 2014 when it was officially granted non-profit status, having changed the name because another non-profit called Riverbend Moms had claimed the name.
This year's drive was successful beyond anyone's fondest dreams.
"We had 230 kids signed up," said Mid-Town Moms founder and president Savanna Bishop, "and they were adopted by families to receive gifts, and another 50 kids on the waiting list."
Usually, the organization holds various events during the year, such as a Christmas in July event, and other drives during November and December, and the families are usually allowed to shop themselves for the gifts. The pandemic forced Mid-Town Moms to take a different approach.
"We usually allow families to shop for toys," Bishop said, "we usually have a Christmas in July event and drives in November and December, but we couldn't do that this year because of COVID. This year, we had an angel tree online, where kids were adopted by a family, and they bought presents from their wish lists posted on our Facebook page."
This year's event was totally online, and the purchased gifts were delivered to the organization's offices for distribution on Tuesday. The families of the kids came down to pick up their Christmas presents, and standard COVID precautions were taken throughout the pickup. And because of the wish lists, along with generous donations, more children and families were able to be helped as well.
"We had one person per family in every 10 minutes," Bishop said, "we sanitized, and the next person came in. We had an Amazon and Walmart wish list, and with cash donations, we were able to take 50 kids off of our waiting lists."
Being able to give back to the community during the Holiday season is very important to Bishop.
"When I was younger, my family didn't have a lot," Bishop said. "I remember going to different places to get help, so that's why we do this every year."
Mid-Town Moms also gives out everything needed to help hold kids' birthday parties as well, including cake mixes, icing and other assorted props, and also helps others in need. And the recipients are very grateful for the assistance, which makes a difference in their lives.
"It really does," Bishop said. "We just gave a $75 gift card to Aldi's for a woman, and she actually cried. She told us that she didn't have any food in her house, and it was an unexpected blessing."
It's the idea of the organization to help others, and Bishop is hoping that Mid-Town Moms will be able to do more in 2021.
"We're hoping to do more in person," Bishop said. "We've been picking up donations from people in Alton and Granite City who can't come up to deliver donations. We're hoping to have more in-person things next year, but we'll see how things go."
But this year's toy drive was a big success, and Bishop and the organization are raring to go for 2021.
"This is our sixth year, and things got bigger and bigger," Bishop said. "So we'll definitely do it again next year."
For more information about Mid-Town Moms and their work, please visit their Facebook page or log on to their website, www.midtownmoms.com.
