Tree of Hope Completes Its Annual Mission

The 2021 Tree of Hope holiday toy collection event faced continued challenges prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but an ongoing public health crisis didn't stop the non-profit organization from helping children and families during trying times.

For more than 30 years, Tree of Hope has been collecting toys for children who are hospitalized during the holidays, serving approximately 40 hospitals, shelters, and Ronald McDonald houses.

"We delivered 3,200 toys," reported organizer Deb Klier. "There were also 17 large bags of stuffed animals. Normally, we are short of toys for infant, toddler and teen ages, but this year we ran a little short of the grade school age."

Between 25 and 30 volunteers gathered at St. Cloud Regional Airport's Hangar H2 to make quick work of bagging the large number of collected toys for delivery.

Klier said there were an additional 25 volunteers who delivered toys to the hospitals, including John Regenold, who has been involved with Tree of Hope delivery effort for 26 years. His family features three generations of pilots, and flew into St. Cloud on a cloudy Saturday morning with an aircraft filled with toys.

Most of the toys were delivered within the week after the Dec. 4 event, Klier added. Klier said that participating hospitals asked for deliveries by Dec 10 so they could quarantine the toys for a while before giving them to the children

"Once again, COVID-19 presented us with some challenges," Klier added. "We tried to have social distancing as much as possible when packing toys, knowing that the toys would be going to children in the hospital."

In past years, Tree of Hope participants would drop off toys and stay to socialize and have some refreshments, Klier said. This year, organizers needed to limit the number of people in the hangar, so people were encouraged to drop toys, grab a snack and head out.

"We did not see the number of people stopping by to drop off toys," Klier said. "I believe this might have been because we did not have a toy collection event last year due to COVID. Toys were ordered on line and shipped to the hospitals. Hopefully, next year we will be able to make this a more social event as well."

Monetary contributions can be made on the organization's donation site by scanning a QR code. Also visit http://www.HolidayTreeOf Hope.org for additional information.