ToysRUs speaks to autism and so does their shoppers

Time to Share Some Good Stuff! Last week I found some good news from Skeet’s home, Hawaii, but this week I’ve got more news from my home, New Jersey.

Whether you have children or not you’ve either shopped at, passed by or heard of ToysRUs. This big chain of toy stores is headquartered right here in New Jersey. What you may not know is that ToysRUs is a partner with the organization Autism Speaks. ToysRUs partnered with the Autism Speaks organization to help fund autism reasearch and advocacy. Autism affects approximately one in 150 children in the United States. ToysRUs is the national sponsor of the Autism Speaks Walk Now For Autism fundraising and awareness walk program, as well as a sponsor for monetary grants awarded to Autism Speaks. This year, for the second year in a row, ToysRUs carried out a seven week marketing program collecting donations for Autism Speaks. The program is scheduled to coincide with April Is Autism Awareness Month. Last year more than $1.1 million was collected. This week ToysRUs announced that this year was even more successful, with more than $1.5 MILLION being collected from all US ToysRUs stores and the ToysRUs website. That’s a lot of generosity from shoppers and employees, going to a very valuable cause.

Since giving birth to my second son I naturally have greater interest in anything pertaining to special needs, particularly down Syndrome. We became aware several years ago that ToysRUs put out a special needs toy catalog for the holiday season called A Toy Guide For Differently Abled Kids. Along with the 7 week fundraising campaign, ToysRUs put out a special mini edition of the Toy Guide called the Ten Toys That Speak To Autism, which is located at http://www.toysrus.com/autismspeaks.

I’ll be making sure I buy something from them instead of the other guy next time I need a toy. It’s awesome to see a huge company such as ToysRUs being involved with the community and important causes such as this one.

Filed Under: Health • Life