Last year, sisters Anna and Amanda Spanburgh-O’Connor, along with big sister Allyssa and their mom, Debbie, collected more than donated 725 gifts for children with cancer. This year they want to distribute even more. Photos by Dan GuarinoEach year, something special starts to happen in and around a home on Broad Channel’s west side. As the days get shorter, the house lights burn longer and toys, games, dolls and stuffed animals begin to pile up on every surface in the Spanburgh O’Connor home.
Broad Channel resident Debbie Spanburgh-O’Connor and her daughters, Anna, age 11, Amanda, 9, and Alyssa, 16, have gathered hundreds of gifts to deliver to children in need.
“Our daughter, Anna, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010,” O’- Connor explains. One year “around Christmas time, we were leaving the hospital and she was concerned that her friends upstairs and the other children would not be getting a visit fromSanta Claus. It was a heartbreaking reality that they were not going home for Christmas.”
Neither she nor Anna was ready to leave it at that. “We needed to make sure the children on Med 4 got toys for Christmas.”
Med 4 is the children’s cancer ward at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
O’Connor said, “Anna and I talked about it on the ride back. When we got home we posted on Facebook and the response and help we got was amazing. This will be our third year donating hundreds of toys to the children who weren’t going home.”
Last year they had more than 725 toys in their home. As she says, they come from “anyone who has been touched by cancer in a child.” Particularly, she is “grateful for our community of Broad Channel and surrounding neighborhoods like Rockaway, Belle Harbor, Breezy Point and Howard Beach.”
Even friends and family from Florida have helped.
This year the toys will be distributed at Cohen and also Ronald Mc- Donald House. “It’s a great place doing amazing things for families and children who are sick.”
This will mark the third year for the toy drive and it really is a family project.
“They count, they stack, bag, load up the vans,” she says of her daughters, “They work hard!”
And, she says, “they thank everyone who drops off something.”
Having cancer affect their own home has given them a deeper appreciation of things. “Nothing has made me prouder than watching them help me do this! Their hearts are big and kind.”
As for the children receiving the accumulated gifts, O’Connor notes, “Any child getting toys on Christmas morning has to feel such happiness, no matter if they’re home or in a hospital. That is our goal.”
Along with various events at which toy donations will be accepted, the O’Connor family welcomes all individual donations. “Anyone can donate to this.”
Those who would like to donate and add to the already gathering mountain of toys can go to Debbie Spanburgh-O’Connor’s Facebook page. They will find “3rd Annual Holiday Toy Drive Benefits Children Fighting Cancer” under the Events tab, and the location to either send or drop off gifts.
Toys will be collected up to Friday, Dec. 11.
Expressing their own understanding of how cancer affects families, and explaining why they are doing what they do, O’Connor adds this for her family. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to the families and children of anyone who has to go through this difficult journey.
“We wish you all happy holidays and good health in the coming New Year.”
Certainly each child will go into that New Year knowing for certain that, yes, Santa visits hospitals, too
.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment