In December 2021, Children’s Institute held  four Winter Festival Toy Drive-Thru & Walk Ups for the second year in a row. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, CII staff are still finding ways to safely make the season bright for our children and families across Los Angeles.

Thanks to our incredible sponsors—The Colleagues, Partnership for Families, Shelter Partnership, Good Plus Foundation, UCLA Latino Alumni Association, UCSB’s Chican@/Latinx Alumni Network, Film Craft LA, Film Tools, South LA Café, and countless individual donors—CII was able to distribute thousands of toys and baby items, and hundreds of grocery bags.

6,893 TOYS

570 GROCERY BAGS

1,687 BABY ITEMS 

Hundreds of families drove through 4 different CII locations—in Echo Park, Watts, Long Beach, and Wilmington—to pick up gifts, enjoy festive music and even catch a glimpse of Olaf (from Disney’s Frozen).

We’d like to thank our sponsors and community partners who made these events possible; our staff and volunteers who spent hours preparing, distributing, and cleaning up; and we’d especially like to thank the families who came out to celebrate with us.

Happy holidays to our entire CII community!