Toys for Needy Children Wrapped with Love

By [Matt Draper] Toys, games and other gifts were scattered across the floor, children played with wrapping paper and the smell of pizza filled the air. But no one opened any presents. The scene resembled a backwards Christmas morning on the Upper East Side Dec. 9, as dozens of children and their parents wrapped presents and loaded them into bags as part of a holiday gift program. The families gathered at Kidville, a school and play space on East 84th Street, for a wrap-and-pack party to benefit 300 needy children living in the Astoria Houses, a housing complex in Western Queens. The children will receive the presents at a holiday party put on by the East River Development Alliance, a nonprofit that works to improve public housing neighborhoods. The alliance selected the children who will receive the presents based on need, said Mitchell Taylor, president. â??It"s not about the toys, said Taylor. â??It"s really about using the avenue of the holidays to engage three or four hundred children to engage their parents. The event was a three-part collaboration among the alliance; Big City Moms, a company that hosts events for expecting and new mothers; and Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.), which solicits toys and games from donors and manufacturers. All of the gifts's which included books, games, dolls and art supplies's were provided by K.I.D.S., while members of Big City Moms did the wrapping and packing. This year marks the third holiday gift project between the alliance and K.I.D.S., and the first wrap-and-pack party. â??It"s a good cause and it"s nice for the kids to see that there are other kids that aren"t as fortunate as they are, and to come and help out, said Linda Greenblatt, an Upper East Side resident who wrapped a Strawberry Shortcake doll and other presents with her daughter Lindsay, age 4. Mickey Navarro, surrounded by wrapping paper, tape, bows and her children and grandchildren, sat on the floor carefully wrapping a book. Navarro"s daughter, Tamika Hawthorne, and her 7-year-old son Jacoy wrapped about 15 presents, putting blue stickers on boys" presents and red on those going to girls. â??Christmas is for kids, said Navarro. â??And for children not to have anything is sad. So we came out to help.