Toys“R”Us announced a brand new PLAY WITH PURPOSE fundraising and awareness campaign in partnership with Save the Children (a nonprofit committed to ensuring all U.S. children have a healthy start). Together, they are embarking on a mission to provide children in impoverished regions of the country with opportunities and resources to integrate purposeful play into their everyday lives; a factor proven critical in children’s emotional, physical and cognitive development and future growth.
15.5 Million U.S. Children Live in Poverty; Many Lack Playtime in Their Daily Lives
10 Minutes of Play Improves Children’s Performance
Play Enhances the Progress of Early Development by 34%
From February 17 – April 17, customers can make cash donations at any Toys“R”Us or Babies“R”Us store, or online at Toysrus.com/PlayWithPurpose, to help bring learning through play to kids in need.
Play With Purpose campaign is designed to support Save the Children’s early childhood development programs – Early Steps to School Success, Literacy/Healthy Choices and the SummerBoost Initiative – which help children in some of America’s most underprivileged areas thrive.
Together, Toys“R”Us and Save the Children are embarking on a mission to provide some of the 15.5 million youth living in impoverished regions of the country with opportunities and resources to integrate purposeful play into their everyday lives; a factor proven critical in children’s emotional, physical and cognitive development and future growth.
Through the good work of Save the Children’s early childhood development programs and field representatives, underprivileged families from Washington state to Washington D.C. are able to reap the benefits of hands-on involvement, as they embrace unstructured playtime in their homes. Statistics serving as the foundation of this campaign include:
Play builds the foundation for a lifetime of learning
Pretend play with a child from 8 to 17 months old is linked to higher intellect at age 5
Young children benefit from interaction, babbling, facial expressions and gestures, the absence of which from adults can lead to disparities in learning and behavior
In one study, children ages 1 ½ to 2 ½ who were provided sets of plastic building bricks had significantly higher language scores six months later
Even 10 minutes of play can improve a child’s performance, may encourage thinking and successfully controls behavior
Children with access to a variety of toys reach higher levels of intellectual achievement
Dream Halloween will take place on October 21st form 1pm – 4pm at the legendary Hard Rock Café in New York City. Here is the link to the information page, http://keepachildalive.org/events/dream-halloween-ny-2012/. Co-founded by Grammy Award winner and new mom Alicia Keys, Keep a Child Alive does cutting edge work, reaching children most in need with compassionate care.
In addition to raising funds for sites in Africa and India, Keep a Child Alive will be sponsoring children from agencies here in New York City that support families affected by HIV /AIDS to partake in this joyful event, and will provide small grants to local agencies supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS in the U.S.
This event will be hosted by Padma Lakshmi and will have a performance by Cody Simpson.
Today on Wednesday, October 17th, LifeLock is stepping up to donate $1 to the Pat Tillman Foundation for each Facebook like received on this day up to $25,000!
For anyone unfamiliar with this organization, “The Tillman Military Scholars program supports our nation’s active and veteran service members and their spouses by removing financial barriers to completing a degree program of choice. The scholarships cover not only direct study-related expenses such as tuition and fees, but also other needs, including housing and child care. Since the program’s inception, the Pat Tillman Foundation has invested over $3.2 million in financial support to 230 Scholars.”
One thing that I’ve always been in my life is giving… I’ve been working in non-profits and Not-for-profits all my professional life, its really one of the struggles I have in my head – do good for many or do good for myself – they seem to be at odds.
Teaching our children about charity even in times like these are important… Usually this is done through school’s community service programs or through a religious school sponsorship of event or their own requirements to give back to the charity.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of charity fund raising for the last 2-3 months its been for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is important to both my wife and myself that we raise our child with knowledge of giving back – paying it forward ect… we do believe in karma – I’m a huge believe in the cycle of life. Its part the reason why I hope I do right and good by others they’ll do right by me.
I rotate the charities I support some because of direction of my own life and some because of influences like friends or family. Years ago one of those influences came to Suzanne and myself and she searched for a charity to run in honor of someone close to us both… She found the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society she successfully raised over $4,000 and completed the San Diego Marathon. Now years later shes trying to raise money again for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this time its $3800 and she’ll run and complete the New York Marathon. Times have changed and its harder to raise money for a charity, which is why this has been on my mind and I’m blogging about it! Charities are usually based on fund raising and donations which require giving… you dont have to give much but give a little something… every dollar matters. Instead of having that starbucks donate that $3-5, 10 for lunch ect. If 10 people did that thats $30, 50, 100 it adds up and it helps.
Most of the best break though research comes from organizations like Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I know my son is watching his mom run (as we’ve waived from our Apartment once or twice as she ran by) and will watch in person at the NYC marathon! He’ll understand that her commitment was to help others.
If you can give anything that would be wonderful! 100% of your donation is tax deductible To make a donation please click here and thank you.
