thank you note for operation toy story.....

confession: I kept a Rex from the pile of donated toys, to remind myself of OTS2010

1. Took 2 days off from the Internet. It's midnight now but I told myself I must not sleep until I've written a thank you note to all donors, contributors, volunteers and publicists ;o) for Operation Toy Story '10.
2. So here goes -- A WARM AND HEARTY THANK YOU TO ALL DONORS. CONTRIBUTORS, VOLUNTEERS AND PUBLICISTS FOR MAKING OPERATION TOY STORY 2010 A GREAT SUCCESS!!
3. I must admit that I did not at all expected such overwhelming response from so many people that I've never known existed ;o) such is the power of electronic social networking! What started off as a 30 emails sent out to people I have in my friends list, ended up as far as Thailand and India!
4. 1 day before d-day, my living room was a heaven for kids, with all sorts of toys from cute fluffy penguins to a 7-feet tall zebra (not kidding about the zebra), pianos and keyboards, talking and singing dolls, books, colouring stationery and mysterious wrapped gifts! Not too good for my housemate though because he's a neat freak and all that hoard is giving him a major headache.
5. On d-day, 4 cars were deployed to bring the toys to Base-Zero, a conference room kindly provided by Beely of Usana Health Sciences (many many many thanks to her, can't do it without her!) and from 3pm onwards, the volunteers gathered and started wrapping and categorising toys accordingly so that they'll be gender and age appropriate.
6. To keep the working morale high, some contributed snacks and drinks for us, we even had a kilo of butter cake made just for the event! Thanks to all who provided food, I really helped myself with the cakes ;oP
7. At 6pm, designated Scouts went on their way to get information on the numbers of kids who stayed back to spend Christmas in the wards. There were 7 wards in 3 different locations, so we split up and covered our given assignments. Had a slight glitch on the Onco ward initially, but it was rectified promptly with the help of an internal Mule, DrS who has been indispensable for this project since the beginning ;o) DrJ was roped in when I happened to cross her path on the way to the baby-ward, I've not seen her for the past 7 years and I had about 20 seconds to explain to her what's going to happen later that night, and she signed up immediately! And she brought along her minions of medical students!
8. After scouting we went back to Base-Zero to tag the presents and pack them according to wards. Even after pushing in 10% more toys into the loot (to account for late admissions), and filling a car-load worth of toys for the Paeds Day-care Unit, we had around 300+ extra toys and presents left and didn't know what to do with it.
9. The housemate gave me a sharp threatening look - a deadly warning that none of the toys should come back into our house ':o}
10. Finally they were donated to another volunteer's charity event, also involving kids just before the new year, yay!
11. The night ended after we shuttled the packed toys to the designated drop-off points at the hospital. The night duty nurses seems to be nicer and more accepting than the evening shift ones. Not sure why, but the sight of over sized plush animals with huge button eyes might have melted their hearts ;o)
12. The plan for an after-mission party didn't take off, the volunteers were so visibly tired from the day's work at the Toy Factory. I've had a splitting headache since the evening and was just too glad to be able to go home and have a warm shower ;o)
13. Many did ask in their sms the next morning, were the kids happy when they woke up on Christmas morning? Well, all I can say is, we'll probably never get to know, because Santa never stayed to watch anyway...
    
14. But of course they will be :o)
    
15. So, now for the aftermath -- cleaning up and clearing up the remaining of the toys. Some of them have been donated to other charities such as the refugee camps (since we're all about cheering up those who didn't get to be home for Christmas, so I thought it would be very fitting to give some to them).
16. Till the next project, have a Merry Merry Christmas, and a Wonderful New Year 2011!!

Luv, Arteo