Austin Wildcats Basketball, Inc

3rd Annual Toy Drive

ABOUT THE TOY DRIVE:

Over the past five years I have taken numerous Wildcat and Lady Wildcat teams to Southeast Austin to play in basketball leagues outside of our program. I did this for many reasons, but primarily to allow the kids to see the bigger picture of basketball and, more importantly, the bigger picture of life. For the past five years the Dove Springs Recreation Center has become part of the extended Wildcat community. Every year, the recreation center holds a Winter Carnival for those in that community who might not otherwise celebrate the holidays, but they had never been able to give away toys. As many of you know, I decided two of years ago to host a toy drive with a “Saturday Midnight Madness” event and donate all of the toys collected to the Dove Springs Recreation Center. The first year we collected over 100 toys which we delivered, only to find that due to the large number of kids they had to raffle off the toys and not every child received one. I resolved last year that I would start earlier and be better organized with the goal that every child would receive at least one toy. With the help of parents, players and coaches we collected over 400 toys for last years Winter Carnival. My ultimate hope, besides giving holiday toys to children who might not otherwise receive them, is to teach the kids in the Wildcat Program that giving is not just writing a check, but seeing a need in your own community and doing what needs to be done to fulfill that need.

THIS YEAR:

My plan for our third year is to collect toys and financial donations over a one month period and deliver the toys to Dove Springs the beginning of December. With your help, we could meet or even SURPASS our goal of 300 toys, and further tailor the donations to specific age groups or even requested toys to better meet the needs of the Dove Springs community.

DONATIONS:

If you do not have time or you forget to make at toy purchase, a financial donation is just as helpful. Last year due to the large amount of financial donations we were able to work out a great deal with Toys-R-Us. I would like to encourage those of you with businesses to make a financial donation to our toy drive and we will put your company’s logo on our web site.

VOLUNTEERING:

If you would like to help with Midnight Madness or the Toy Drive please email me. Unlike previous years, the Wildcat Program will be providing the pizza and drinks, so I will not need donations for these items. However, we will need donations of gift cards or other “cool” items for the participant raffle. I could also use help collecting toys, organizing and coordinating the food and drinks, monitoring the courts and most importantly cleaning up the gyms afterwards. I hope to have a wrapping party for the toys on Saturday, December 5th and will need help with this along with handing out the toys at the Winter Carnival.

If you have any questions about the Austin Wildcats Basketball program or the Wildcat Toy Drive, please feel free to email me

If you have questions about the Dove Springs Recreation Center or their Winter Carnival, please feel free to email Billy James

Sincerely,

Darrel Smith

President
Austin Wildcats Basketball Inc.