Our contribution to Random Acts of Kindness Day

This post is sponsored by Toyota USA. All opinions are my own.

Who out there likes to participate in Random Acts of Kindness?

Like you, you’ve heard of those times when people pay for your order at Starbucks and you secretly hope the person in front of you is that kind. It is referred to as Random Acts of Kindness. However, I prefer to do something slightly bigger. I love being able to supply someone else with something they need. So, when I was approached by Toyota to help them deliver their “Random Act of Kindness”, I agreed to help.

Our mission: To purchase donations for Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Toyota sent us $2,500 in gift cards to spend the weekend purchasing items for donation. Our goal was to make sure most of the things are geared towards tweens and teens (since they are a group of high need) and deliver them on Monday to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

In order to transport everything, Toyota sent us a 2017 Toyota Sienna. With 3 kids, it made the whole weekend so much easier. Everyone had their own space (so it cut down the fighting) and there was still plenty of room for the donations. We both drive cars so having Olivia higher up made it easier to buckle her in.

We spent part of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday buying donations. I didn’t realize until we made it halfway through Saturday how hard it can be to spend money! I mean it isn’t hard, we spend money every day. However, when you are trying to get as much as you can for the money, it is super hard.

We made a couple of trips to Target and got all kinds of games. The assortment of board games was great. Don’t forget packs of cards as well. 1 player games and multiple player games were on our list. I wanted to make sure we had every option we could. Including a couple of iTunes gift cards. There was also a mixed selection of movies (all rated PG13 or below) and a couple of popular books. Don’t forget nail polish!

Art supplies were also at the top of the list. We stopped at Michael’s and Joann’s for a couple of things. Colored pencils and sketch pads were important to us. As well as journals and art projects. I personally loved to write when I was a teenager so we got as many as we could find.

We made a special stop to Best Buy to purchase a Nintendo Switch.

To us, it was important for the kids to have something that would be played while in isolation or together with other children. It can be easily cleaned and passed around to different rooms as it comes with a battery pack. We didn’t forget the extra set of controllers and games.

After suggestions from friends with teenagers, we stopped at Barnes and Noble for books. Perfect place for book sets. We got the Divergent series and Percy Jackson series. They also had a great selection of puzzles so we scooped up as many as we could carry. Adult coloring books were also on our list and they had a great supply that teenagers would love.

After spending all the money, we laid them all out so we could see them. What a haul!

We met with Robbii at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to drop off the donations. Included in the $2,500 worth of donations, we also dropped off a $2,500 check from Toyota! The hospital was extremely thankful for the donation and we were happy to help out.

Not only was I happy to do this Random Acts of Kindness but I was excited to teach my children about the hospitals’ needs and about donating. Make sure you check out your local hospital’s website to see what they may need. And thanks again to Toyota for including us in their donation.

Don’t miss the video below taking you along with us on this journey.