"Wish list" of toys
Small gifts and prizes are always needed – keeping gifts portable helps us share them with more children in more areas of the hospital. We also list suggestions by age for infants, toddler/preschool, school age and teens.
Many of our children with special needs and disabilities require specialized, adaptive toys.
If you’d like to help out, we would gladly accept a gift card from Enabling Devices. Your gift card will then be used by a Child Life specialist to purchase an adaptive toy(s) for use during therapy with patients with disabilities.
Keeping kids safe is core to our mission. Before you give, please check with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Also, please remember that we can only accept new, unwrapped gifts.
How do we use gifts?
We use your genenrous donations of gifts in multiple ways, all year round. For example, children are often given the chance to pick a prize after a particularly hard day or on a special occasion, such as finishing a round of treatment. In addition, our closed-circuit, interactive television station Skylight TV hosts several in-house television game shows each week, following the philosophy that "everybody's a winner," creating a daily demand for small prizes.
Suggested small gifts and prizes
- Beanie Babies
- Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars
- Small popular cartoon characters/figurines
- Mini Lego kits
- Card Games
- Handheld games
- Small jewelry or bead kits
- Small DoodlePro
- Key chains
- Finger puppets
- Fancy pens
- Decorative pencils
- Plastic slinky
- Small play dohs
- Silly Putty
- Small kaleidoscopes
- Crazy straws
- Any size balls
- Super balls
- Lanyards
- Gel pens
- Water bottles
- Fun erasers
More suggestions, by age: infants (0–18 Months)
Especially needed are infant/toddler crib toys, rattles and teethers.
- Rattle and teether toys, crib links
- Crib toys, musical toys
- Musical and light soothers
- Shape sorters, stacking rings, cubes, cups, activity blocks
- Mobiles
- Duplo blocks
- Books — cardboard or vinyl
- Bouncy seats
- Crib mirrors
- Wub-nub pacifiers (pacifiers connected to beanie babies)
- Activity gyms
More suggestions, by age: toddler/preschool (18 months–4 years)
- Cause-effect toys (child’s actions cause sounds, lights, music or movement)
- Cars/vehicles
- Role play toys - kitchen sets, play food, doll furniture, tool sets
- Play medical kits
- Baby dolls (all ethnicities, both genders)
- Pillow Pets, other stuffed animals
- Duplo Blocks
- Little People sets
- Popular characters toys/figurines (Toy Story, Dora, Thomas)
- Pull/push/roll toys
- Shape sorters, linking toys
- Musical tables, toys and instruments
- Bubble machines
- Peaceful aquariums
- Books (English, Spanish), musical, interactive books, pop-up books
- Recordable books
- Puzzles (24 pieces or fewer), giant floor puzzles
- Bubble tumblers (non-spill)
- See'n'Say
More suggestions, by age: school age (5–12 years)
- Portable DVD players
- Polaroid POGO camera with Zink photo paper
- Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars
- Popular cartoon character toys/figurines (My Little Pony, Toy Story, Dora, Thomas)
- Bionicles, Lego kits
- Plastic dinosaurs, animals
- Cars and trucks, other vehicles
- Barbie dolls and accessories
- Pillow Pets, other stuffed animals
- Handheld games
- Nerf Ball games
- Hot Hoops
- Fisher Price Kid Tough Magna Doodles
- Play-doh Fun Factories
- Beads and jewelry making kits
- Craft, model kits, Crayola Color Wonder
- Board games (Sorry, Life, Clue, Checkers, Chess, Let’s Go Fishing, Dominos)
- Card games (Uno)
- Books (English, Spanish), activity books (Where's Waldo, Eye Spy), musical, interactive
- Recordable books
- Coloring books — non-violent
- Puzzles, 25–100 pieces
More suggestions, by age: adolescents (13 years and up)
- Ipads
- Ipods
- Headphones
- Portable DVD players
- Polaroid POGO camera with Zink photo paper
- Hand-held game units
- Itunes cards
- Gift cards for department stores
- Fun toiletries (nail care, brushes, combs, pins)
- Back packs, tote bags, toiletry bags
- Make-up starter kits
- Magazines (teen, fashion, sports)
- Diaries, stationary, notepads
- Hot Hoops
- Bionicles, age appropriate Lego kits, Transformers
- Word search books, Sudoku books
- Books (English, Spanish)
- Graphic novels (illustrated in the style of a comic book, NOT adult or explicit content)
- Paper Jams
- Playing cards
- Picture frames
- Calculators (hand-held battery-operated)
- Jewelry kits
- Key chains
- Stress squeeze balls
- Model Kits (age appropriate – challenging)
- Sports paraphernalia — T-shirts, jerseys, posters
- Teen oriented puzzles (up to 150 pieces) – music bands, movie stars etc.
Movies, music and video games
Please note that we do not currently have a need for VHS tapes (videos), but DVDs are welcome.
- Portable DVD players
- Ipods
- Headphones
- DVDs: newest releases with G or PG13 ratings, nonviolent, movies for teens are especially needed.
- Video games (nonviolent) for X Box, X Box 360, Playstation 2, and PS3 systems
Arts and crafts supplies
Especially needed are small,
2 oz. containers of Play-doh, crayons for all ages (especially toddlers) and small arts and crafts kits
- Art kits
- Crayola Color Wonder
- Crayola Giant Coloring Pages (all ages)
- Coloring books (all ages)
- Crayons (regular, jumbo for toddlers, Twistables)
- Washable markers
- Watercolors and washable tempera paints
- Do-A-Dot art paints
- Glitter pens and glitter glue
- Play-doh (2 oz. containers)
- Glue (glue sticks, multi-purpose glue, Tacky Glue)
- Foam shapes stickers
- Construction paper
- Pipe cleaners, pom poms
- Paint brushes and sponges
- Self-drying art clay
- Beads
- Glitter/sequins, google eyes, feathers
- Craft sticks
- Safety scissors
School supplies for School Services
- Ipads
- Dry erase crayons
- Mechanical pencils
- No. 2 pencils (especially "fun," decorated pencils)
- Pencil sharpeners
- Erasers (especially "novelty" erasers)
- Folders
- Pencil cases
- Skill-based workbooks
A note about stuffed animals, blankets and other plush items
- We welcome donations of newly purchased stuffed animals with tags. Unfortunately, we can't accept stuffed animals that have been on display or stored in a way that may have gathered dust and allergens.
- We also welcome hand-made blankets. Fleece "no-sew" varieties are popular. Please gently launder your blankets after they are made before delivering.
- To prevent transmission of household allergens and other contaminants, please transport and deliver fabric items in plastic trash bags that are tied at the top.