The Cool Story Behind YouthBuild Evansville’s Holiday Toy Drive

Students at YouthBuild Evansville are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work this holiday season by collecting toys for children in our community. The students are taking a hands-on approach by actively participating in not only the setup of collection boxes around the area but also their construction.

READ MORE: Celebrate the Season of Giving by Fostering Youth in Indiana

If you're unfamiliar with the organization, YouthBuild Evansville empowers disconnected youth to rebuild their lives and their community through hands-on learning and mentorship. A disconnected youth is someone between the ages of 16 and 24 who is neither employed nor attending school. According to the organization, there are currently around 2,000 disconnected youth in Vanderburgh County.

YouthBuild Evansville Launches Toy Drive

The students currently involved at YouthBuild are already putting their new skills to work. The organization has just launched a Christmas Toy Drive in partnership with Hope City Church on North Main Street in Evansville. The Toy Drive will benefit the Ozanam Family Shelter, which has been serving the Evansville homeless community for over 30 years. The shelter provides transitional housing and counseling for unhoused youth and is the only local emergency shelter able to keep families together.

"This is an event we have put together ourselves for one of our projects," said Ezra Starks, YouthBuild student and Leadership Council president. "We did it to help benefit the children who aren't as fortunate as others around. It’s actually really fun."

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Building Collection Boxes with YouthBuild

YouthBuild specializes in construction training, which came in handy for this new Christmas Toy Drive. Starks and his peers actually constructed the box you see above and plan to build around 10 boxes in total. Tiffany Browning, Placement Specialist at the Evansville Housing Authority, works closely with YouthBuild and said this was a great way for the students to apply their new skills in our community.

"We kept trying to decide how we were going to go ahead and collect the boxes, and then it dawned on us—hello, we're with YouthBuild. We can build the boxes," Browning said. "They turned out really well."

How to Donate to the YouthBuild Evansville Toy Drive

The YouthBuild Christmas Toy Drive will run through Friday, Dec. 20. YouthBuild is asking for new, unwrapped gifts, which can be placed in the handbuilt donation boxes set up at various locations throughout the community. One box is located at Hope City Church, and another can be found at Catfish Willy's Seafood & Comfort Cuisine on East Virginia Street in Evansville. You can view the organization's Amazon Wish List by clicking HERE.