Ohio siblings Jennifer, Kimberly and Benjamin Kletscher are glad their first time having children also brought them an extra holiday gift: nearly 50,000 toys for the holiday season.
The 27-year-old siblings have been collecting donated toys from their five neighborhoods in the Dayton area since Thanksgiving, according to the Dayton Daily News.
Jennifer, an educator, started the drive four years ago when she was unemployed with her sister and brother looking after her three preschool-age sons. A year later, her father, who was also unemployed, launched the drive and is now retired with his own grandchildren.
“We just take in all the toys and hope somebody is going to open them,” Jennifer told the Dayton Daily News. “That’s our main goal. I just really wanted to share what I had in my heart. I just love what I have.”
Last year, the children helped collected more than 20,000 toys. This year, the sisters and their brother collected 42,500 toys in just the five days before Christmas and then put 1,000 back into the drive. They put each one through scanner, and some are delivered to local hospitals through the charity hospital.
The Kletschers have now made the drive a tradition and have teamed up with local firefighters to help sort the toys. Jennifer has even handed out hundreds of gifts that day.
“Our hopes and dreams are to inspire those little kids to have an appreciation for what they have,” she told the newspaper. “And to not only give it back, but to show them it can be done.”
The Kletschers hope to further the drive by reaching out to political, religious and community leaders in hopes of helping continue the drive as a grassroots effort. The siblings and their neighbors plan to hand out some toys in December to the Boys and Girls Club in Kenton, Ohio.
Not only did the community take to helping the Kletschers, the siblings say the collection project has also helped strengthen their relationship with each other.
“Some of our friends say our kids get along so much better than anyone that they know,” Jennifer told WDTN.com. “It just shows what a special time it is together and loving each other.”