Iowa City Toy Redistribution Project seeks donations as it enters sixth season

IOWA CITY — When Annie Ventullo was a social worker several years ago, serving families around Christmas involved a little extra labor of love.

The children she worked with would have a request for Santa, like any other child. Parents, meanwhile, worried about how to make even part of it come true.

So she started a fundraiser with friends in her network to help make some of their wishes come true. Later, Velvet Lotus Tattoo shop in Iowa City offered to pitch in with “flash sales,” giving clients a streamlined array of designs to get inked for a good cause.

Now, nine years later, Tats for Tots is channeling its success into a bigger project: the Iowa City Toy Redistribution Project.

“One of the reasons we started originally with our fundraiser was that there are a lot of barriers to access gifts during the holiday season,” Ventullo said. “If you want to sign up (for other charitable efforts), many times you have to have the kid’s social security number, or sign up by a certain time. We said we don’t want to put those limits.”

Growing the effort

Relying on donations of cash, gently used toys and volunteer efforts to restore them, the project is unique for a couple reasons.

First, no identifying information is required for families to participate. There are no restrictions on who qualifies, either.

As the holiday season becomes inundated with consumerism, the project isn’t just a substitute for an Angel Tree — though it is appreciated by parents working with limited budgets. Families who want to avoid contributing to landfills and participating in overconsumption visit the distribution warehouse each December, too.

  Buy Photo

“Who comes to distribution days isn’t just the haves versus the have-nots. We’re sharing our collective toys with anyone who wants them,” Ventullo said. “This is helping folks who might need it, but also supporting folks who don’t want to … add junk to the landfill.”

Started in 2020 by Elke and Trisha Windschitl, the project was a response to a child’s concerns that Christmas would be canceled by the immense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With toy donations, the college student and her mother would take photos of items, post them to a website, and deliver them to families that chose them.

But after the growth of the first year, that kind of service became unsustainable.

For the next couple years, Ventullo would fill her garage with toys for local kiddos of all ages and load her car for distributions.

Last year, CommUnity Crisis Center granted the Toy Redistribution Project access to a warehouse for storage, where donors can drop off toys during the week.

“It has upped our game by a million,” Ventullo said.

But an increase in exposure also meant a growing volume of low-quality donations. Today, donors are given a set of guidelines when they contact the project, to yield higher quality toys.

Last year, the project served 310 children — an increase of about 30 percent over 2023.

Turning around toys

The litmus test for appropriate donations is simple.

“We do throw out about 8 to 12 percent of things — things a parent would not be proud to give to a child, or a child would not be excited to receive,” Ventullo said.

  Buy Photo

Each season, about a dozen volunteers spend hundreds of hours reconditioning toys.

The process is often simple: wiping some down, replacing hard-to-reach batteries in others, counting the puzzle pieces or pulling spare parts from their stash to restore board games.

“Candy Land can be played if it’s missing a couple of the colored square cards, but not if it’s missing the character card,” Ventullo explained. “When there’s an opportunity for replacement, I have replacement game tokens.”

The same goes for things like gently used art sets, where markers can be replaced.

Younger children grow out of toys quickly, creating a larger supply of gently used toys for toddlers. But the Toy Redistribution Project struggles more to procure toys for children 12 and older.

“We do get much less donations for older kids — art sets, unburned candles, perfume, decorative items a teen might like,” Ventullo said.

This year in particular, the organizer said donations have slowed significantly as many who might have otherwise donated are tightening their belts.

“Right now, we have half a shelf filled. Usually, starting November 1, emails are rolling in and we’re getting stuff,” the organizer said. “We’ve had three emails so far.”

Securing Santa’s bag

Families can shop at one of two distribution events, where volunteers are on hand to keep kids occupied while parents shop. Parents receive 5 points for each child, which can be spent on a variety of items.

  Buy Photo

The point system, implemented in recent years, has helped ensure that every family who wants can participate.

Big toys, like a bike or expensive keyboard, might cost all five points. Other medium and small toys might cost one to three points. Parents can mix and match with autonomy to fit each child’s needs.

Books, provided by Antelope Lending Library, are free — no points necessary. And if you can’t find anything that’s right for your child, you can take home a $25 Visa gift card. Last year, the project was able to give every teenager a gift card.

Any leftover toys at the end of the season are donated to other nonprofits.

It helps save the planet and parents’ sanity. But most importantly, it’s building something that will outlast any toy.

“Seeing the term redistribution in action with the community is beautiful,” Ventullo said. “We are a collective species. Only in taking care of each other will we survive.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.