Morgan community members donate toys for first annual Christmas toy exchange
Jan 09, 2024 08:19AM ● By Verlene Johnson
Many families in Morgan and beyond benefited from the first annual toy exchange. Photos Courtesy of Mackenzie Glover
Morgan Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known around the valley for holding a huge clothing exchange held every summer.
Over the past year, Mackenzie Glover thought about doing something similar but with toys. Last year she dismissed the idea. However, this year, as November rolled around, she decided she couldn’t dismiss the thought. After reaching out to the Morgan Stake Relief Society President, to see if it needed to be a sanctioned church activity to use a church building, she was told she could organize it without going directly through the church.
After reaching out to the building coordinator of the stake center, Glover was told she couldn’t hold it there until January “I knew I wanted to do it before Christmas so people that could get rid of old toys could do so in a convenient manner and those who could use a little help with Christmas could come and pick out things for free,” said Glover.
She reached out to the Rock Chapel building coordinator and was able to arrange the toy exchange to happen there on the morning of Dec. 9.
Posting on Morgan Moms to let people know it was happening, she was able to coordinate four drop off locations around the valley. She was also able to get a trailer to secure the donated toy until the event. With fliers and social media posts, people immediately started donating. Even if people were unable to donate toys, Glover wanted people to know they could come and pick out toys for their children.
“The day of the event was a huge success and I feel that there were many people that walked away from the event happy,” said Glover. While many of the toys were gone by the end of the event, Glover was able to donate toys to a ward in Ogden to help them put on a similar event.
“This community is absolutely amazing!” said Glover. “Something like this couldn’t have been so successful in such short notice without the help of this community. We are so blessed to live in this wonderful place with so many good people. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way or offered their help.”
Glover looks forward to this becoming a yearly event with hopes to it keep growing to help people in Morgan Valley.λ
