Our Organization

A. Portland Toy & Joy Makers helps the needs of low-income families in the Portland area to give their children toys for Christmas. (We follow federal income guidelines.)

B. Portland Fire & Rescue's Toy & Joy Makers started giving toys to needy children in 1914.

C. Our current program involves getting ready to set-up our distribution center. We are also setting up programs for our show and tell events. Board members are meeting with businesses who we feel can help us with donations of money, supplies, inventory, PR and building location.

D. Program Goals

- To provide leadership that encourages community Toy & Joy Makers partnerships that result in helping children and their families.

- To try to ensure that no child should go without receiving gifts for Christmas.

- To reduce a child's tragedy of losing their toys due to fire, flood, earthquake and other natural or man made disasters.

- To manage the resources and provide the support necessary to accomplish our mission.

- Our timeline, of course, is the Holiday Season. We do not want to cut our program. Without additional financing that is our only choice.

E. The Board of Directors is responsible to make our program work. We have been adjusting to many changes and now we must look to more outside help.

This project will allow us to continue our program and to look at additional ways to bring in more community participation. To show the city and its leaders that this is a long established community program that is worthwhile and a valuable PR program for the City of Portland.

In the past years, we have accomplished our targets with the help of the continued budget we request. When we find our program running short of toys, we have gone to the television and radio stations and made our plea to the public and to businesses. Buying toys at Christmas time is costly and limited. So far, each year we have reached our target number of children.

Commitment of staff and volunteers involves many long hours during the peak season time. We have 20 to 25 volunteers each day helping at our headquarters (December). Staff members are also there every day. We all believe in this worthwhile program and will continue to support it through good and bad times.

We work with other agencies in our area to check for duplication of clients. We all feel we have a good handle on this. We do not share equipment or facilities with other agencies. Our program is the largest in the State of Oregon and has a long respected history in working with state and local agencies.

We have been working in our neighborhoods since 1914. Our role in the community involves working with schools and the teachers to find and assist families in need and working with schools to teach children about giving and helping their community. We work with businesses to show them how they can get involved helping with toy collection or donation programs. During our main season, we contact and work with state and local agencies that assist low-income families. This is one way we prevent duplication of giving.