Toy Fund helps grandparents raising kids amid illness, loss and homelessness

Many of the letters to the Press Herald Toy Fund come not from mothers or fathers but from grandparents who find themselves struggling to raise young grandchildren.

The children are separated from their parents at the holidays for many reasons, often under circumstances that are tragic for both the children and their grandparents.

The grandparents feel a special kind of pressure to bring joy into their homes at the holidays but find themselves financially and physically unprepared to be full-time parents once again.

“We are grandparents on a tight budget,” a woman from Cumberland County wrote to the Toy Fund to ask for help for her 12-year-old grandson.

“We have custody of him. He had trauma with the loss of his mom … from fentanyl. He is still struggling at school but is good at home.”

The boy’s grandmother, who is grieving herself, decided to ask for help simply because he deserves some happiness, she wrote. “We hope he gets something.”

A woman from central Maine is caring for her grandchildren because her own daughter is seriously ill.

“My daughter is fighting a cancer battle. So as the grandmother, I am taking care of the kids while she goes through the process of saving her life,” she wrote.

A Midcoast woman says she is providing a home for her grandchildren while their parents sleep in emergency shelters.

“My 4-year-old granddaughter is living with me because her mom and dad are homeless,” a Midcoast grandmother wrote. “She has been with me for about 5 months. I am on disability and the fixed income is pathetic. … I could barely make ends meet before. Now I’m supporting a child and all her needs and myself with no help. Don’t get me wrong, I would do the same thing over again to protect her, but she deserves so much more than I can give her.”

And a grandmother from York County wrote about struggling to simply feed her three grandchildren, let alone buy holiday gifts.

“I have been raising them for eight years come January,” she wrote. “I have very little money left after bills are paid. I am on disability. We do get very little for food assistance but we do utilize the food pantries.

“I always do my best as a grandparent to provide. Together we are grateful for what we have. They have been my little troopers in helping and being supportive of me through illness. I’d like to be able to give them something.”

Thanks to the supporters of the Toy Fund, those youngsters, and thousands more, will experience the simple childhood joy of opening gifts, playing with new toys and reading new books during the holidays.

The Toy Fund uses the donations of newspaper readers to buy toys and books for kids up to 16 years old in York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Androscoggin and Knox counties.

Anyone making an online donation to the Toy Fund through Dec. 19 will be entered to win four tickets to Portland Ovations’ “Recycle Percussion” show on Jan. 22 at Merrill Auditorium.

The Portland Press Herald and Lewiston Sun Journal publish lists of the donations along with stories about the holiday gift drive from Thanksgiving through the month of December.

HOW TO HELP:

To make a donation online, go to pressherald.com/toy-fund.

Checks made out to the Portland Press Herald Toy Fund may be mailed to 295 Gannett Drive, South Portland, ME 04106.

Names of donors are published in the Press Herald and Lewiston Sun Journal unless a donor wishes to remain anonymous.

TODAY’S DONATIONS:

$100.00: In memory of Neily — Bob Morse
$50.00: In memory of my parents, George and Frances Smith, from their daughter. — Theresa Hall
$50.00: Peter and Kristen Lemay
$35.00: Anonymous
$1,000.00: Anonymous
$100.00: In loving memory of my mother, Della Fogg, and our son, Mitchell Kessler — Richard and Carlene Kessler
$150.00: In loving memory of Ken — Cecilia McNaughton
$15.00: David Carew
$250.00: In memory of Alan Hawkins, who made Christmas magical — Margaret and Emily Hawkins and Katie and Rob Vail
$100.00: Ann Ramsay-Jenkins
$100.00: Merry Christmas! — John and Linda McCormick
$50.00: Merry Christmas! — Daniel and Susan Baynes
$500.00: Walter Stinson
$50.00: In memory of Scottie — Judith and Gordon Oliver
$100.00: Fred and Deb Sprague
$200.00: Anonymous
$250.00: In honor of Abigail Rose, who has plenty — Anonymous
$200.00: Anonymous
$50.00: In loving memory of Phyllis Corcoran and Milo Cummings III — Catherine Wright
$75.00: From the grankids, Keili Curtis $25, Eliza Wright $25, Nicholas Ham $25 — Catherine Wright
$50.00: In memory of Tom — Anonymous
$500.00: Merry Christmas, in memory of Mom, Dad, Robin and Karen — Frederick Haley Jr.
$5,000.00: John and Stephanie Haddad
$100.00: Joe and Cindy Wyman
$250.00: Anthony Debruyn
$5,000.00: Anonymous
$52.92: Margaret A. Haberman
$105.52: Peter and Ellen Wood
$10.84: Anonymous
$50.00: Anonymous
$105.52: Happy Holidays. Steve and Laurie — Steve Kazilionis
$315.94: Anonymous
$158.13: Anonymous
$105.52: Anonymous
$52.92: Anonymous
$105.52: Morrill Family
$21.36: Dan & Sandy Kerpelman
$52.92: Anonymous
$263.34: Anonymous
$52.92: Anonymous
$100.00: Paul & Katie Dexter
$105.52: Anonymous
$105.52: Merry Christmas — Lisa Trembley
$21.36: Pauline Spinrad
$105.52: Merry Christmas — Anonymous
$105.52: Anonymous
$105.52: The Swift Family
$52.92: In memory of Whitfield B. Steele — Anonymous
$250.00: MERRY MERRY!!! — The Ramsey Family
$210.73: Wishing PEACE AND JOY to all this Christmas — Anonymous
$105.52: In memory of our son, Jeremy. We miss you every day. — Anonymous
$105.52: Anonymous
$105.52: Anonymous
$1,262.18: Anonymous
$105.52: Happy Holidays. — Joseph and Mary Louise Bates
$26.96: Anonymous
$52.92: Keith Levesque
$210.73: Anonymous
$52.92: Peace on earth, goodwill towards children everywhere, always. Naples Grandma —Anonymous
$210.73: Anonymous
$105.52: From Sonny — Anonymous
$105.52: In memory of Lucille and Albert Luce. — Barbara Stanley
$105.52: In memory of my parents, Pete and Beverly Beckwith — Cindy Beckwith Fallona
$105.52: Anonymous
$105.52: Thank you to everyone who works so hard to share the magic of Christmas — Anonymous
$105.52: Patricia Fabrisi
$52.92: Anonymous
$26.20: Merry Christmas — Fulton family
$52.92: Happy Holidays and best wishes for the New Year. Taff — Catherine Field
$105.52: Robert Morrison
$111.33: Merry Christmas. — Cindy and Mike Coulombe
$52.92: Anonymous
$210.73: Anonymous
$210.73: Anonymous
$105.52: Bill Richardson
$105.52: Merry Christmas! I hope your holidays are full of love and joy. — Liz Taintor
$52.92: Christine & Alix Caulfield
$26.62: Anonymous
$105.52: Anonymous

Year to date total: $125,141.44.

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