Long Beach Groups Trying To Help Disaster Victims This Holiday

Long Beach is a small city with an awful lot of heart. This holiday season, two different groups are working to make things a little brighter for disaster victims by collecting toys to give to children in both Puerto Rico and California.

The first group is Operation Toy Story Puerto Rico, sponsored by the Entrepreneurs Organization and the Young President's Organization — two groups of young business owners. They banded together with the goal of collecting 10,000 toys to ship to children in Puerto Rico, who are still struggling after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

The organization's goal is to deliver the toys to Puerto Rico by Three Kings Day on Jan. 6 — a major holiday for the country. All toys need to arrive at the group's facility in Jacksonville, Florida by Dec. 24 to make it to Puerto Rico on time. Once they arrive, Operation Toy Story's group on the ground in Puerto Rico will distribute the toys across the island.

To help make things easier, the group has created an Amazon gift registry where people can easily purchase toys. When checking out, just make sure to ship to the Operation Toy Story facility in Jacksonville. Or, if you want, you can ship your own toys to the facility. Here's the info:

OPERATION TOY STORY: PUERTO RICO
C/O COOL TRANSPORT
5650 Witten Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32254

The second group of giving Long Beach residents is Waves of Hope USA. The group formed out of the local response to Hurricane Harvey and is now dedicated to helping disaster victims after the initial cleanup is over.

Waves of Hope is holding a toy drive at St. Mary of the Isle Church, located at 315 East Walnut St., to help the families who have lost everything in the California wild fires, as well as the first responders who have put everything on the line to fight the fires.

Those who wish to donate should bring new, wrapped toys to the church by Saturday. Donations will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. If you need it, there is a gift wrapping station at the church. Plus, everyone who donates will get a free holiday photo of their family, courtesy of CTK Photos.

Photo: Pixabay