The Kids Lift Foundation believes every child is entitled to a happy and enriched childhood. Our mission is to support local families through volunteerism, community cooperation, morale building, and educational tools. We seek to provide that support through Toy Lift, Books Lift Kids, and Kids and Cops Holiday Shop.

The purposes and objectives of the Foundation are to:

  • Provide toys and books to area children ages newborn through 8th grade
  • Seek charitable contributions of money, toys, books and other needed items
  • Seek volunteer assistance from the community
  • Not interfere with any governmental or community agencies already assisting area children
The Foundation’s service area includes the City of Charlottesville and the Counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson, and Orange.

Why should I support Toy Lift and what makes Kids Lift Foundation different? Toy Lift is entirely volunteer run. There is not one paid employee as part of the Kids Lift Foundation. We start with a volunteer board of nine people that work all year. We add another 10 volunteers who serve as advisors from July through Toy Lift. Then we host hundreds of volunteers from the community during the event itself.

All our toys stay local. The families we serve come from Albemarle, Buckingham, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson, and Orange. The toys we collect from the Toy Lift event go directly back to those families. None of our toys are sent to Richmond, Lynchburg or other locations. We do allow other local charities to take advantage of the toys we have left after we have taken care of the families on our list.

Our selection criterion allows us to identify families that might otherwise be missed. We do not use the financial documentation that other organizations do. Instead we require all our families to be sponsored by a school. We rely on the recommendation of a school counselor or social worker that a family is in need of support. This allows us to identify those families that may not already be part of “the system,” but may be experiencing circumstances that make this year particularly difficult.

For example, a family that has had a parental death this year and mom couldn’t even imagine trying to pull together Christmas might not meet any financial criteria, but the school personnel that know this family can identify them for us. They can also help us find those families who may have a very recent job loss, an accident or crisis such as a fire, or a sudden family burden.

THE TOY LIFT TEDDY BEAR - A Story by Elis Clarke

Hi, let me introduce myself – I’m just an average-sized brown teddy bear sitting on the shelf at the store. I only hope that some child will want me. Here comes a family & the little girl picks me! She says I’ll be just right for the Toy Lift. I’m so excited that she wants me! But after checkout and the ride home, I’m left in the bag and put in a closet with some other toys and a bag of books.

One day the closet door opens and all of us are picked up. The little girls says “Finally it is December 7 and time for Toy Lift!” After a ride in the car we arrive at Fashion Square Mall and the parking lot is full. Where will I go? There are bucket trucks, radio trailers, a group of children singing, Santa’s house and a tent where folks are eating. We are all taken to a tent, counted and packed into boxes.

Then we are loaded in a truck. Someone yells, “This truck is full and leaving for the DC.” When the truck backs up what a loud beeping it makes. The door is opened and boxes are quickly taken off and stacked. Soon I’m taken out of the box and put on a table with lots of other stuffed animals.

Now I can see what is going on. This place, the DC, which I hear is short for Distribution Center is amazing. It must be 10,000 sq. ft. There are people unpacking boxes and sorting toys. There is a section for girls (dolls etc), toddlers, boys (trucks & trains etc), stuff for teens, games and a section for arts & crafts, bikes and books – oh, and a section for stuffed animals. There is even a space where people can eat.

There is another section where people are picking “wish list toys.” I hear that all of these people are volunteers. Some come for a short time and some, referred to as Board members or Advisors are there all the time. Some of the Board members say that they are serving over 2300 children from 43 schools in Charlottesville and 5 surrounding counties. That's a lot of children!

The activity goes on until the final truck unloads around 10:00 pm and all of those boxes are unloaded and sorted. Then everyone goes home, but bright and early Saturday morning they are back.

Groups of different volunteers are given a family to “shop” for in the DC. Each child gets a “wish list item” (a special doll, a fluffy duck, a big truck or whatever they requested). Then they get another toy, a family game, arts & crafts or a puzzle, books and a stuffed animal.

I didn’t get picked all day Saturday, but now it’s Sunday and oh boy someone just picked me! They said I’d be perfect for the child they were shopping for! Now I’m in the cart with these other toys and we are all checked off and packed into a box, labeled with a code and moved to the shipping area.

Once again I hear that truck back-up beeping and then my box gets packed on the truck and the driver is told to head out to the school, where the families will pick up their boxes and at last I’ll have a home! I hear them saying that this is the last truck, they've collected and distributed 17,000 toys and 11,000 books and now they can clean up and go home to get some rest. The 3 long days at the DC have been tiring, but rewarding for all the volunteers and as a little brown teddy bear who is heading to a family, I can only say “thank you” and keep up the good work.