On Monday, November 12, 2018 we celebrated our first ever Caring and Sharing Los Angeles. This event was the product of close to a year of hard work and planning together with Spin Master toy company and School on Wheels, a local nonprofit. Caring and Sharing is an annual tradition hosted by Spin Master Toronto, and this is the first year it has come to Los Angeles. We feel so proud that the Shuki & Tori Levy Foundation was able to be a part of this special day.
Craig Sims and Henry Montgomery from Spin Master, along with our whole committee, were incredibly committed to making this event happen. Spin Master employees showed up eager and excited to help. It was truly a team effort and we are so pleased with how it turned out.
School on Wheels, which pairs homeless children with tutors, helped us to connect with local homeless shelters. We were able to bring in 215 homeless kids from around Southern California. What an honor to give these kids a day of carefree fun!
Check out a video compilation of our day here:
Each child was allowed to choose three free toys from the Spin Master treasure trove. The only rule? They had to share one of the toys with somebody they love. Their faces were full of excitement and wonder as they carefully made their choices.
Our volunteer team provided a fully catered lunch with lots of yummy options – grilled items, pizza, churros and ice cream. Henry organized fun carnival-style games which the kids really enjoyed. A DJ gave the event a rocking soundtrack, and a magician entertained the crowd. The excited screams of the kids were priceless.
Our friend actor James Caan joined the party, which was really exciting for the volunteers. Two of our friends from the LAPD Reserves, Ronnie Hadar and Steve Fazio, joined for a couple of hours as well. Despite many long days dealing with the local wildfires, they made time in their schedule to show up and hang out with the kids.
Sinead Chilton at School on Wheels wrote this message to us just after the event:
“The kids had a fabulous time. Thank you so much for organizing such a fun day for them. We had some tired but happy kids on our bus! …You treated our students to a day to remember, they all shared out their toys straight away. Thank you again for making this happen for our students.”
We feel this event made an impact on these kids and helped them feel special. Our Foundation is very excited to help again next year, and hopefully bring even more children together to celebrate with us. Gallery of event photos below!
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This event was so much fun!!!
Couldn’t have done it without you, Henry!