Greetings from the Blueline!

Yesterday was a day I've been looking forward to for a long time - almost a year, in fact.  Yesterday (March 28, 2007) was the day that the Greater Cincinnati Blueliners Club delivered the proceeds from the "Teddy Bear Treasury" toy drive to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.  All two-thousand one-hundred thirty nine toys worth of it.

I managed to get to the hospital at about 8:45 AM... not bad considering I use I-471 to get to downtown.  I was met by Cathy, who has been our contact at CCHMC this year with this event, and we unloaded the toys from my can onto a couple of large four-wheel carts.  As we finished unloading my car, Jim came rolling in with the trailer that held the rest of the collection.

Cart by cart, bags and boxes of toys were brought into the Auditorium at the Sabin Education Center.  As they were being unpacked and stacked, we began to understand just how many toys there really were.  You can get something of an idea by looking at this picture, but I'm not sure it really does justice to the sheer volume of toys we were looking at.

Representatives from the area K*B Toys stores, as well as Scott, their District Manager, were there for the delivery.  Meggan, K*B Toys Store Sales and Promotions Coordinator from the corporate offices in Massachusetts came in for the delivery as well.  Coach Hardin and four members of the UC Hockey Bearcats were there as well.

I had received a message the day before that XU's team president was going to be out of town and unable to make the presentation.  Reps from the Jr Cyclones were unable to attend as well.  I never did get any response to my invitations to the Cyclones and the Cyclones Fan Club.  They were both helpful contributors to this drive, but were for some reason unable to attend.  We still appreciate their cooperation, and I know the CCHMC patients who receive the fruit of their efforts will appreciate it as well.

After lots of talking, laughing, picture-taking and hand-shaking, we packed up the toys once again to be taken to Child Life for distribution to patients at CCHMC.  We were all already talking about how we can do even more next year, and I hope that will be the case.

I was tired as I was heading to the elevators to the parking garage, and it was only 11:00 AM.  I was carrying one of the K*B store signs with me, along with my camera, as I entered the elevator.  Just behind me a young lady carrying a toddler got in the elevator too.  I asked her which level she needed, and it turned out she was going to the same part of the parking garage as I.  She saw the sign in my hand and asked me if I work for K*B Toys.  "No," I replied, "I don't.  But, I'm part of the Greater Cincinnati Blueliners Club.  We worked with K*B Toys this February to collect toys for Children's Hospital, and we just finished delivering over 2,100 toys."

She went on to tell me that she had made several trips to CCHMC with her son over his few short years, and how much it means to him (and to her) when he is able to leave the hospital with a brand new toy.

Sure, I'm a little disappointed that our press releases to the local media didn't bring any tv cameras to the event.  Sure, I'm a little disappointed that not all of the organizations that helped us with the effort could be there for the delivery.  But, even if everything else that happened on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 between the GCBC and CCHMC was taken away, that brief conversation in the parking garage elevator between two strangers reminded me exactly why we do this.

And we'll keep doing it as long as we can.  Get ready for 2008... I hope the stage isn't big enough to hold all the toys we can collect.