Hilary Key loaded up her vehicle with 15 boxes of toys and headed to Camp Atterbury to share some joy with Afghan refugees last week.
Science kits, arts and crafts, drawing books, stuffed animals, toys for newborns and jigsaw puzzles for adults were some of the toys loaded into the boxes thanks to $3,635 in donations the Toy Chest collected in just 33 hours.
The Toy Chest then matched the donations, bringing the total spent on toys to $7,270, owner Hilary Key said.
“I just tried to make a point of picking out things that did not require English language mastery. There are not any strategy games with complicated rules,” Key said.
“It’s a really big variety. Hopefully there’s more than one thing for everyone.”
Earlier this month, Camp Atterbury began welcoming the first 1,000 refugees from Afghanistan. Additional refugees are expected to come in waves of about 1,000 up to 5,000.
The 46,000-acre camp will provide families with dorm-style housing, and individual refugees will be situated in open barracks. The base can house up to 10,000 people with capacity expansion possible, said Brig. Gen. Dale Lyles, Indiana’s Adjutant General.
The last U.S. forces flew out of Kabul’s airport late Aug. 30, ending America’s longest war following an airlift of Afghans, Americans and others escaping a country once again ruled by the Taliban.
All refugees are vetted before arriving and are allies who helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
Active-duty and National Guard service members are providing housing, medical, logistics and transportation services for the refugees.
But they need help.
The nonprofit disaster response organization Team Rubicon is helping organize donations to refugees. A list of all donation items needed and information on how to donate can be found at www.teamrubiconusa.org/resettlement#how-were-serving.
Clothing, diapers, phone chargers, prayer rugs, Qurans, hygiene products and bottled water are some of the items needed.
The American Red Cross is also helping organize donations. Monetary donations can be made by visiting www.redcross.org/donate/cm/indiana-pub.html/
New, non-battery operated toys was one item Key said she knew the Toy Chest could help give.
“We really, especially over the last couple of years, tried to make a point of helping when we can when there’s a need that can be directly helped with toys,” she said.
“We were like ‘Hey we can do that.’”
Key said making the donation process easy was also important. People could go to the Toy Chest’s website then select a dollar amount they wanted to donate towards purchasing the toys for the refugees with the Toy Chest matching all of the donations.
Seeing the donations come in also helped Key be able to switch her mindset back to a positive one after living in a negative and polarized world for months.
The Toy Chest was one of the businesses to think outside of the box at the start of the pandemic when they delivered personalized packages to customers within a 25-mile radius of Nashville. Customers told The Toy Chest about their family, picked a theme and dollar amount, and employees built a surprise package.
“That made it easy to just really see the best in people and people coming together. It had been a while since we have done this,” she said.
Key said she was prepared to receive negative comments from people for helping the refugees, but that the opposite happened.
“We got such an overwhelming response of so many people just giving $5. Some of them I know their circumstances and that $5 was a stretch,” she said.
Almost all of the donations were made online with a few people coming into the Toy Chest to drop off money. Eighty-nine different people made donations to purchase the toys.
“For me, personally, it was a really good reminder to flip my mindset and go back to where I used to really stand: That pretty much all people are good and doing the best they can,” she said.
“It’s nice to have your phone keep buzzing with examples of that.”
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The Brown County Democrat Party will be collecting donations for the Afghan refugees currently at Camp Atterbury on Saturday, Sept. 18.
Donations will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the Brown County Antique Tractor Association Show at the Brown County 4-H Fairgrounds, 802 Memorial Drive in Nashville. They are asking that disposable diapers, wipes and new socks be donated. Donations can be dropped off at the south end of the fairgrounds.
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