Mattress Firm holds toy drive for foster kids

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

There are only a few days left to drop off new, unwrapped toys for the Toy Drive at any local Mattress Firm store, including the Copperas Cove location in the Five Hills Shopping Center.

 

December 18 is the final day to drop off any new toys, electronics or books at any Central Texas Mattress Firm location for their annual Toy Drive, which will help benefit children in foster care.

 

All proceeds from the toy drives at 12 Central Texas locations, including Cove, will be donated to Arrow Child and Family Ministries and Foster Angels of Central Texas after December 18.

 

Mattress Firm Foster Kids, the program partnering with charities benefiting foster children, holds six donation drives per year to help local foster children: a pajama drive, a shoe drive, clothing drive, school supplies drive, a dollar drive and a toy drive.

 

The toys will be distributed to warehouses and then sent out into different areas in communities to be distributed locally through local partners, according to Mattress Firm spokesperson Michelle Reed.

 

One of the local partners, Foster Angels of Central Texas, serves 30 counties near Austin, including Bell and Coryell.

 

The only requirements for the toys are that they be new and unwrapped. Reed said she suggests picking up an extra toy or two when someone is out doing their own holiday shopping or grocery shopping and then bringing it by Mattress Firm.

 

Even with only a few days left of the Toy Drive, Reed encouraged people to continue to bring toys by.

 

“Some people think that all foster parents are funded or that they get a stipend,” Reed said. “They do generally get paid something, but sometimes it’s a family member that takes a child and sometimes they don’t get approved because they are a family member or their stipend may be less.”

 

Reed said the drives  that Mattress Firm Foster Kids holds are just one way to help the more than 400,000 foster kids across the country. In Texas alone, there are 15, 856 children in foster care, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

 

Most of the time when a foster child enters a foster home, they only have the clothes on their back. It helps them when they get something from one of the many drives and are able to take that with them through the foster system, Reed said.

 

The slogan of Mattress Firm Foster Kids is Not everyone can be a foster parent, but everyone can help a foster child, Reed said.

 

The Copperas Cove Mattress Firm is located at 3018 E Highway 190, Ste 100, next to Jersey Mike’s Subs and Chipotle, in the Five Hills Shopping Center.