The seventh annual Helping Hearts food & toy drive will be held Saturday November 12th at the Point Bar & Grill in Gilberts from 7:00 PM until 2:00 AM. There will be live music by the Roadhouse Prophets and raffles. Attendees are asked to bring an unwrapped toy and a non-perishable food item as admission.
The event began when organizer Linda Hartline saw a “giving tree” during Christmastime in 2004 that still had numerous unmet needs hanging on the branches. With the help of her husband, her brother and his band the Roadside Prophets, she organized the first Helping Hearts to collect toys for the Tom Thumb Community Childcare Center in Carpentersville. The Center serves at-risk children and families, including child abuse and neglect cases, adolescent parents, and lowest income families. In later years, the event began also collecting food pantry items for Turning Point, McHenry County’s only comprehensive domestic violence service agency and shelter. Explains Hartline “We have always collected enough toys to be able to have Tom Thumb give each child a gift at Christmas. They have close to 100 children. We also purchase additional toys and books for the center. We have given a lot of food and also gift cards to Turning Point and each year it gets bigger and bigger.”
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Helping Hearts will be held Saturday November 12th beginning at 7:00 PM at the Point Bar and Grill, 38 E. Higgins Rd., Gilberts. More information is available by calling 847-426-6655.
