STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 What began as a small holiday effort by Healthy Keepers, a North Shore cafe, has grown into a community-wide Christmas toy drive, drawing families and volunteers together Tuesday evening at Venues On The Terrace in Port Richmond.<\/p>\n
Kimberly and David Galan, owners of Healthy Keepers, a North Shore caf\u00e9, started the toy drive two years ago at their caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n
As the event grew, they partnered with local businesses, including Jose Matias of Matias Real Estate and Lisa DiBenedetto of NY Dance Company. Together, they expanded the effort to reach more families in Port Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat made us initially start this annual toy drive event was just wanting to give back to people inside of the community,\u201d Kimberly Galan said. \u201cNot a lot of people are fortunate enough to go to JC Penney and pay $50 for a photo with Santa. So here they\u2019re able to have a safe place where we deal with people of all kinds of races, religions and special needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Event organizers said this year\u2019s toy drive was streamlined to help it run efficiently for families and volunteers. Galan said last year\u2019s event served 480 children and this year\u2019s served 819.<\/p>\n
Families signed up via a QR code and selected preferred time slots for photos, providing information about the number of people in their family, ages and genders. Organizers then used this information to create the event schedule.<\/p>\n
Children with disabilities were given a separate time for photos to make the experience easier for them and their parents. Organizers accommodated sensory needs, providing headphones and other supports as needed.<\/p>\n
The venue was decorated by volunteers, including Staten Island resident Amanda Lopez, an event planner and owner of SAZ Creations, who created balloon arches and helped decorate the space with seasonal colors and inflatable decorations.<\/p>\n
Children explored reindeer, gift boxes, gingerbread figures, and colorful balloons as they moved through the holiday-themed layout.<\/p>\n
They stopped at a holiday-themed photo area to take pictures with Santa, surrounded by festive decorations.<\/p>\n
Another stop featured the Grinch, with children showing a mix of shyness and excitement as they posed with the Grinch and his inflatable dog.<\/p>\n
While families took holiday photos, volunteers dressed as elves distributed gifts to each child tailored to their age group. <\/p>\n
The gifts, which included coloring books, board games, Bluey-themed toys, headphones, scooters, and more, were donated by the event organizers, and more than 200 pajamas sets were donated by Stephanie Prendergast.<\/p>\n
The number of volunteers doubled this year compared to last year, according to organizers. Staten Island residents, staff from the event organizers\u2019 businesses and Police Officer John Sibal all helped take photos, assist children and support other activities.<\/p>\n
Jose Matias, a retired NYPD officer and owner of Matias Real Estate in Port Richmond, said he has long wanted to give back to the neighborhood. Matias said he had been hosting Santa photo days at his office and, as a member of the Knights of Columbus, had volunteered in the community in various ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into this Port Richmond community, I always wanted to give back,\u201d he said, explaining why he joined Kimberly and David Galan to expand the toy drive and reach more families.<\/p>\n
Lisa DiBenedetto, owner of the North Shore-based NY Dance Company, said the toy drive was important to her because she has worked with children throughout her life. <\/p>\n
She has owned her studio for more than 33 years, teaching dance to children and adults of all ages. DiBenedetto said events like the toy drive help strengthen the Port Richmond community.<\/p>\n
In addition to the business owners, other sponsors included Venues On The Terrace, SAZ Creations, Luis Hernandez Films, The Law Office of Craig A. Fine P.C., S&S Fast Delivery, CKO Boxing, Steph\u2019s Creativity Corner, Aztec Wood Floors, Prestige One, Premier Precision and others, who helped support the toy drive.<\/p>\n
Event organizers said they aim to continue the annual toy drive and expand it in future years to reach more families in the Port Richmond community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 What began as a small holiday effort by Healthy Keepers, a North Shore cafe,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-74866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}