Community Toy Store
The Community Toy Store is an event to help those experiencing financial difficulties in our community by offering them a “hand up, not a handout”.
Here’s how it works; people from churches throughout Whatcom County purchase new gifts and donate them to the Toy Store. The Store then discounts these gifts at 75% off their actual retail value. The gifts are then set up in a store like fashion ready for families to shop. Families from our community are referred to the Store by other churches, agencies, and the Bellingham School District. The families purchase these deeply discounted gifts for their families for Christmas.
This December, it was amazing to watch us work together to Love our Neighbors this Christmas. The Toy Store served 217 families which brought gifts to 594 kids. These families experienced firsthand the love and generosity of Jesus through the churches of Whatcom county. The Toy Store raised $3,639 that has been donated to Friends of Bellingham Promise, which buys beds for kids who don’t have one, and World Relief, which helps refugees settle in Whatcom County.