{ Austin's EMU 2nd Annual Toy Drive }

Some of you know my son Austin has Epilepsy, he was diagnosed in March of 2004 and last August Austin was hospitalized at Memorial Herman Children's EMU ( Epilepsy monitoring unit). He was there for testing to see if he was a candidate for brain surgery to help control his seizures. Austin was at the EMU for a week and while he was there he was not aloud to sleep, they needed to keep him awake to monitor his brain activity and try to induce seizures. While he was awake for nearly 4 days we had to keep him entertained. There is a playroom on the EMU floor, so we visited the playroom many, many times, the kids, all ages, babies to teens are hooked up to machine and have dozens of wires, so mobility is limited and leaving their rooms to play is not an easy task. Some are there for monitoring and some have had brain surgery and are there for quite a long time. The playroom has a few toys in it, a few books and some preschool toys. I asked the play nurse if all the toys were in the rooms with the kids she said that there aren't many toys and the EMU doesn't have a budget for toys, they sometimes get leftover toys from other floors but usually what we saw there was what they had...Austin was not too happy about this and thought 'we" needed to do something about it. He went on a mission last year to collect toys, he collected enough toys, from his friends at gymnastics, family and my awesome clients, to fill my Expedition. The day came to deliver the toys, we were so excited, we called Allyssa, the playroom nurse and told her we had alot of toys and we were on our way, we arrived and they came out with one flat car, when I opened my car she was shocked...it took three flats to bring up all the toys Austin collected. They were overjoyed and couldn't believe the response I had. I told her I had the best client, family and friends and I wasnt shocked at all, I knew we would collect tons of toys for them...

So.....we are going to do it again, we are going to collect more toys for the EMU.

I asked Alyssa if there was anything specific they desperately needed, I asked her to give me her Wish List...

Wish List

- Movies (DVD's) for all ages
- Play station 2 games
- I would love to get a Wii with exercise games on it for the kids that are here long term and need to exercise. Right now we only have a stationary bike. (I know this is big but it is a wish list)
- Computer games. We are looking into getting laptop computers for the kids to use. (If anyone wants to donate old lap tops we would love them!!!)
- Any art and craft projects
- coloring books
- rattles
- take along swings (they are the ones that fold up and sit close to the ground)
- Nice stuffed animals (NEW) that we can use for surgery patients to dress the animal up with all the medical equipment that the patient has.

Austin and I would love to have so many toys that we will need to make more than one trip. If you would like to donate a toy, book, game or any of the items on Alyssa list please give me a call and I will come by and pick them up or you may drop them off at my home or the Studio.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long post and I know I have the best clients, friends and family and we will be able to collect "tons" of toys for the EMU.