As kids head out to visit Santa Claus or suit up for a snow fight, some children are spending the holidays fighting a debilitating illness at home.
In an effort to generate hope and smiles, volunteers from the non-profit group “Kids Need More” deliver donated toys to the doorsteps of those in need of a little holiday fanfare.
Throughout Nassau and Suffolk County, songs of holiday cheer filled the air as a troupe of volunteers surprised more than 50 children coping with life-threatening illnesses with gifts.
Each year, volunteers pile into buses to hand-deliver hundreds of donated toys to more than 60 homes on the Island.
Many of those volunteers are cancer survivors themselves; Ada Yeung, outreach director of Kids Need More, is personally connected to the kids she was diagnosed with cancer as a child.
“I’m actually a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed when I was five. I am 26 now so, I can relate to it because my sister was also diagnosed and relived this whole experience,” Yeung said.
The organization began in 2013 with a group of volunteers from Camp Adventure, a facility for children diagnosed with cancer. Since then, hundreds of kids have been given a healthy dose of love and support from their community.
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