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donate toys or gifts

Children admitted to Dayton Children’s and their families receive the finest medical treatment, emotional support and loving care available anywhere. But children have other special needs. Your gift of toys, books, games, and activities help brighten a child’s stay at Dayton Children's. These gift items are used for birthday presents, end-of-treatment gifts and to stock our play and waiting areas. 

Due to infection control and for the safety of our patients, we cannot accept: 
  • Used items, including toys, books, electronic and board games, stuff animals, etc.
  • Homemade/crocheted/knit items, including blankets, clothing, hats, etc.
  • Blankets or pillowcases 
  • Toys, books and movies with violent themes or weapons, including nerf guns, swords, water guns, action figures with weapons, etc.
  • Sporting equipment/riding toys, including scooters, skateboards, bicycles, footballs, etc.
  • Food or candy

purchase a curated gift package for hospitalized kids

Show your support by purchasing a curated gift package for a hospitalized kid.

Gift packages are designed with our patients' needs in mind. There are options for

  • Babies & toddlers
  • Young kids
  • Teens
  • Families
  • And more.

Our child life team will receive your donated gift package and hand-deliver it to a sick or injured kid spending time in the hospital. 

All you have to do is choose a package, make your donation, and we take care of the rest!

Your gift is tax-deductible, and greatly appreciated by our kids, families and care team members. 

Purchase a gift package today

let us do the shopping for you

Make an online donation to child life. Funds are used to provide activities, toys and gifts for patients. Monetary donations enable the child life department to purchase items as they are needed, resulting in reduced storage needs and the ability to purchase needed items. 

donate today

kids wish list: top ten items needed

top ten items needed (Please note that all items must be new. We cannot accept used items):

  • Fisher Price Little People and Animals
  • Infant/Toddler musical, light up or vibrating toys, teethers, and rattles
  • Gift cards for Walmart, Meijer, Target, area restaurants
  • Small/medium lego sets
  • Matchbox cars
  • Play-doh & Play-doh sets, regular and party size containers
  • Small and medium size Squishmallows
  • Disney princess and super hero toys (without weapons)
  • Activity Books, including word search, sudoku, puzzles, etc.
  • Playing cards, including Uno, Go Fish, Skip-Bo, etc.

items needed by age

infant and toddler

  • Plastic, musical, light up or vibrating toys
  • Rattles, teethers, plastic crib links
  • Board books (all cardboard pages)
  • See-N-Say toys

preschool

  • Crayola crayons, markers and coloring books
  • Little Tikes and Fisher Price toys (Little People, animals, school bus, airplane, cars, play phone)
  • Matchbox/Hot wheels cars/trucks
  • Disney Princess Barbies
  • Play-doh and Play-doh kits
  • Culturally diverse baby dolls & Barbie dolls
  • New, small stuffed animals (must be new)

school age

  • Action figures, transformers
  • Small/medium lego sets
  • Toy dinosaurs, insects, animals
  • Cards - Uno, playing cards, Go Fish, Old Maid, Skip-Bo
  • Over-the-door basketball hoops
  • Arts & crafts kits
  • Fingernail polish, Lip Smackers chapstick
  • Word search, Mad Lib, crossword puzzle books
  • Adult coloring books, sketch pads, colored pencils
  • Gift cards: Target, Walmart

Check out our Amazon wish list for even more items!

items to make

  • Activity bags - Paper or ziplock bags filled with fun activities: stickers, coloring sheets, word search puzzles, crayons or colored pencils, play dough, craft kits with instructions, decks of cards, fidgets. No food or candy.
  • Teen bags- Paper or ziplock bags filled with fidget toys, Rubik's cube, craft kit with instructions, adult coloring books and colored pencils, card games, word search/activity books, nail polish, ear buds. No food or candy.
  • Please note that we do not accept blankets, pillowcases, or homemade/crocheted/knit items, including blankets, clothing, hats, etc. for our patients. Our first priority is patient safety, so all items must be washed in our hospital-grade cleaning facility prior to distributing to our patients, and these items do not tolerate the heat well. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us to provide the very best experience for our kids. 
donate to child life contact

Your gift matters! Funds are used to provide activities, toys and gifts for patients. Monetary donations enable the child life department to purchase items as they are needed for our patients. 

give now

Do you have questions for our child life department? Contact us at 937-641-3303.