LAURENS TOY BOX PROVIDES A TOY FOR EVERY CHILD

By Elyse Van Breemen

Lauren Bothwell is a young hero and a helper. A contest spurred her on—the National Children’s Set A Good Example Contest sponsored by the Concerned Businessmen’s Association of America. Lauren had only to look around her to find a project that would make her both a winner and change her life. Since her father was a doctor at Valley Foundation Baptist Hospital in Harlingen, Texas, she was familiar with the children who came to the hospital for surgery or to recover from the serious illnesses. Her brother too had been ill and hospitalized a few years before. She thought, “What would I want if I were sick and had to go to the hospital? I’d want a toy, something to hug, to play with, to fill the loneliness that accompanies being away from home.”

Before she turned eight, Lauren launched a toy drive at her school, Treasure Hills Elementary, sending out notes to 650 of her fellow students, and erecting a drop off box on the school property. She collected 1067 toys, mostly stuffed animals for the children to hug, new and used books and movie videos. That wasn’t enough, she led her entire school in making good well cards for the pediatric patients to be put on their food trays. Then she crafted hand-made “smiley” thank you pins for her schoolmates who had donated toys. She itemized the toys, then spread the treasures beyond Valley Hospital to the Ronald McDonald House and the Family Emergency Assistance Center. Lauren knew that toys “would keep up the children’s spirit and they would get well faster.”

You would think that becoming a winner for the 18th National Set A Good Example Contest, based on THE WAY TO HAPPINESS® book which inspired her project, would have been enough. She and her whole family enjoyed the prize --- an expense paid trip to Disneyland. But Lauren, seeing the effects her projects had wrought, couldn’t stop there. Two years later, she is still sponsoring toy drives for Lauren’s Toy Box which is an ongoing program that collects toys and distributes them to children who are hospitalized. When Land’s End made a national search for their Born Heroes™, someone wrote to them about Lauren. As a result she was selected as one of nine Born Heroes and as a result of Land’s End donated $5,000 to Valley Baptist Medical Foundation, the Ronald McDonald House of Harlingen and the Family Emergency Assistance Center. On August 11th, 2003, Lauren was named on of the ten Kohl’s Kids Who Care® National Winners. Each winner received a $5,000 post-secondary education scholarship to award their humanitarian effort and a $1,000 donation for their favorite charity.

With all this stress, Lauren, now ten, has her worries. “What if I run out of toys?” she says. For after children check into Valley Baptist Hospital, their very next stop is Lauren’s Toy Box. Lauren’s heart would break if even one child was to come to the hospital and there would be no suitable toy for him or her. But she’s handling it. She now solicits donation from her father’s colleagues and local businesses by mail. Her school, too is helping this year. Instead of the national “Toys for Tots Toy Drive,” they are sponsoring a local “Lauren’s Toy Box Toy Drive.”

Having won the Gold Medal for the Set A Good Example Contest, Lauren has taken on being it’s spokesperson. Since she decided to encourage others to enter the contest, the number of youth in the program has tripled. She likes telling others what she learned – that anyone can change things for the better.

Katie McCarty, Director of development at the Valley Baptist Medical Foundation, finds Lauren’s actions inspiring. When I talk with a potential donor for the Foundation, says Katie, I tell them “if someone so young can do something like this, how much can we do with our resources and knowledge?”

What does Lauren think about all the responsibility she has taken on? “It’s my job,” she says.

To find out more about the Set A Good Example Contest or how you can sponsor one in your area, go to www.cbaa.org or phone Barbara Ayash, the President of Concerned Businessmen’s of America at 310-821-2198. If you wish to make a donation to Lauren’s Toy Box contact Katie McCarty a 956-389-1614.


©Concerned Businessmen's Association of America (CBAA) 2005. CBAA is a 501 ( c) (3) tax exempt non-profit public benefit corporation.
THE WAY TO HAPPINESS® is a trademark owned by the L. Ron Hubbard Library in the USA and in other countries (trademark registrations issued and other registrations pending) and are used with permission.