One of the fundamental elements of HYPE's mission is community involvement, and we are so grateful for the support of all our members. Tons of Toys once again highlighted the engagement and generosity of our members and sponsors, and all efforts combined resulted in collection of a record breaking 2,500 toys!

The annual holiday celebration at Marquee Events featuring the Gershon Fox Ballroom on Wednesday, December 4^th was attended by over 150 young professionals who brought one new unwrapped toy or $20 for admission. Guest enjoyed delicious food provided by Marquee Events, including a mashed potato & mac and cheese bar, a festive photo booth by After Hours Events of New England, and great music courtesy of Miles Elliot. A Little Imagination Cakes once again created an incredible and delicious masterpiece featuring all of Santa’s reindeer!  

We are so grateful to ConnectiCare for their presenting sponsorship that made this event possible. We appreciate your continued support of Tons of Toys!

Santa made an appearance, despite his very busy schedule, and took photos with children, nieces & nephews of HYPEsters who couldn’t wait to meet him! The YMCA of Greater Hartford, the beneficiary of Ton of Toys, brought some of their kids from the Wilson-Gray Youth & Family Center to meet the big man himself, take some photos and then enjoy Santa’s favorite snack, milk and cookies. 

Before the event, donations from generous sponsors were collected to fund a toy shopping spree at Target’s South Windsor location on Sunday, November 24^th. Volunteers filled up many carts with sports equipment, pre-school toys, craft kits, dolls, and much more on behalf of our $500 Candy Cane Sponsors BL Companies, BlumShapiro, Cantor Colburn, May, Bonee & Clark, and United Bank, and our $1,000 Mistletoe Sponsors KBE Building Corporation, Webster Bank, and Cintas. We also had amazing support once again from our $5,000 Sugar Plum Sponsor LEGO!

Our friends at Conning, Halloran & Sage, and Whittlesey also generously support the event with office toy collections! We were also very excited to receive a donation valued at $2,500 from Dunkin’!

We were truly grateful to receive grant support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving again this year. This incredibly generous gift allowed us to purchase specific items requested by the 12 branches, two resident camps, and many pre-school and after school sites.

The toys were delivered on Thursday, December 5th to the East Hartford YMCA location where staff from the YMCA  were waiting to help unload the truck and organize the toys for their youth and families. Thank you to Red Thread for assisting with the transportation of all of the toys. From the donation of the truck and the staff support during the shopping spree and the event, their support truly helps us every step of the way. We are so thankful for their continued support of Tons of Toys!

The YMCA of Greater Hartford is a charitable association open to all and committed to helping people develop their fullest potential in spirit, mind and body. This commitment is reinforced by their belief in living out universal values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. They are the largest provider of day and residential camping in the Capital Region with 4,000 children participating each summer. Thank you to all of the YMCA staff who came out to celebrate at Tons of Toys with us this year! We are so happy to be able to support the work you do with our local youth and families.