Lorelai’s Toy Drive collects more than 1,500 toys

MOSES LAKE — Most children eagerly await their toys on Christmas. But 17-year-old Lorelai Draper has more fun giving them away. 

“When she was 12, a light bulb went off,” said Draper’s mom, Heidi Rogers. “She finally understood that some kids don’t get presents for Christmas, and she wanted to do something about it.” 

That was in 2021, when Draper established Lorelai’s Toy Drive and, through word of mouth and social media, collected about 300 toys. This year, Lorelai’s Toy Drive brought in 1,547 toys for children of all ages. The toys were distributed Dec. 21 in conjunction with Moms Helping Moms, a local online group that held a toy drive of its own. 

“She surpassed us,” said Jeannie Austin, Columbia Basin Herald advertising manager and Moms Helping Moms co-founder. “I think we had about 1,800 gifts collectively, but this one girl had 1,500-odd … Lorelai is amazing.” 

Draper has stepped up her collection methods over the years. Much of her collection comes from a wish list on Amazon, where people from all over can look through a list of toys and buy something they think a child would like.  

“The toys on there are $40 or lower,” Draper said. She tries to keep it low, she explained, to keep potential donors from being put off by high prices.  

Draper and Rogers also know where to find good bargains on toys. 

“We got a lot of toys from clearance sections and thrift stores,” Draper said. The money to buy the toys came from donations through social media and the Amazon page, she explained.

The toys are usually stored in the family home, Rogers said, but a dishwasher mishap this year caused some flooding, so Moms Helping Moms stepped in to store the gifts until the time to distribute them.  

Lots of people and organizations hold toy drives in December, when Christmas is on everybody’s mind, but Draper, who has autism, focuses on her project all year, Rogers said. 

“She’s in that mindset all year long,” Rogers said. “It’s not just at Christmas. She thinks about it literally all year. She’s instantly like, let’s go see what deals we can find.” 

Draper enjoys collecting the toys, Rogers said, but the high point for her is the giveaway. 

“She was walking through with the people, helping them pick out the gifts and carry the boxes,” Rogers said. “She was right in the middle. She loved it.” 

“I had so much fun, I couldn’t remember (what I did),” Draper said. 

Moms Helping Moms has handled the distribution side for Lorelai’s Toy Drive for the last four years, Austin said. 

“Lorelai is the heart of the toy drive,” Austin said. “She brings cheer. She shows up with a smiling face, and she just wants to greet everybody and see the joy that it brings.” 

Less than a week after Christmas, Draper had gotten a head start on next year’s drive, she said.  

“We’re already on 90 toys so far,” she said. “(We got them) from the Walmart Christmas clearance.” 

Draper is a junior in high school this year, and she has no plans to slow down after she graduates next year, Rogers said. 

“I’m super proud of her that she keeps wanting to do this year after year and give back,” Rogers said. “Seeing how filled with joy she is, it makes my mama heart happy.” 

“If everybody could meet Lorelai, they’d see that she wears her heart on her sleeve,” Austin said. “Seeing those gifts go to people in need is her biggest joy.” 

Lorelai’s Toy Drive can be found on Facebook at https://bit.ly/LorelaisToyDriveFB. To see the Amazon wish list, visit https://amzn.to/4sgUZEN. 

    In this 2021 photo, Lorelai Draper, then 12, shows some of the roughly 300 toys she collected in the first year of Lorelai’s Toy Drive. This year, she collected more than five times that number.