If his 9-year-old son had not landed at the North Texas pediatric hospital, Children’s Health, for three days, Bryan Adams would not have known of their need for toys.
“We were in the hospital in August and when you have a sick kid, there’s something about being in the hospital for an extended period of time,” Adams said. “Getting a toy can brighten your day. It was really special.”
Adams is co-founder and CEO of Integrity Marketing Group, which is an independent distributor of life, health, and wealth insurance.
“They gave him a Nerf gun and he had the best time playing with the Nerf gun,” Adams told Dallas Express.
New stuffed animals and toys are given to patients year-round at the hospital to help comfort them after procedures and surgeries and to celebrate key milestones like end-of-treatment events.
Although his son, Asher, is back home and doing great, Adams is forever changed by the experience.
“The nurse said they wished they had more toys to give because they had been running really low,” he said. “That’s when we decided to do something about it.”
Integrity donated $100,000 to Children’s Health to purchase toys and stuffed animals for their patients as part of “Giving Tuesday” on November 30. The $100,000 is expected to facilitate the purchase of as many as 50,000 new toys.
“That way Children’s Health can continue to buy gifts and toys and games and stuffed animals for all the other kids who will be at the hospital for a while,” Adams said.
Integrity also launched the Integrity Gives Back toy drive in which more than 3,000 toys were collected and donated by Integrity employees and managing partners.
“We created a landing page called Integrity Gives Back and on that page we have a link to a wish list on Amazon,” said Director of Public Relations Rachel Aird. “We’re inviting others in the community to get on and shop for something. It’s a fun and easy activity to do with kids especially with it being Giving Tuesday. They can choose something that they would want to give.”
Giving Tuesday is a day of contributing to nonprofits and other charities that traditionally happens after Thanksgiving.
“It’s really special to be able to give back with your kids,” Adams said. “We have a younger son as well and we went through Amazon.com as a family to pick out our toys that we matched. We had the absolute best time with my wife and our two boys going through and just selecting gifts for the patients. It’s always better to give than to receive and this was a way to experience that as a family.”
Integrity worked with the Child Life Team at Children’s Health to create the wish list on Amazon that donors can choose from.
“It’s everything from a lot of different games that kids can play at various ages,” Adams added. “You’ve got kids who are infants all the way to their teens in the hospital so we have Nerf guns, little basketball hoops, footballs, and stuffed animals. We delivered so many stuffed animals and everything in between that you can imagine from cars to Barbie dolls and action figures to Transformers. It’s amazing to see everything we were able to come up with.”
