Special needs children & adults on Staten Island

Our first year (2017) - My name is John Louis Sublett, my son is John Jr. (he is 36 and has Autism). When he was a child and diagnosed with Autism, his first school was PS 37. We ran a toy drive for this holiday season and wanted PS 37 to receive all the toys that we received. I posted on my Facebook page, that I was running a toy drive for special needs children on the island. I named my toy drive “Toys 4 Autism”. I set up a wish list on Amazon ( we selected special toys that were good for children with ADD, Autism & ADHD). Before I knew it, my mail was flooded with gifts for these children. In total my son & I were able to put together 180 small gift bags ( each bag had three small toys, a candy cane, a blow pop and a chocolate marshmallow candy bar.)

We started the day by entering the auditorium and were treated to a holiday musical show put on by many of the different classes. We found Santa roaming the halls of the school and enlisted his help to distribute the presents to each classroom. I was amazed at how well structured each classroom was and how well equipped medically this school was. The staff was so friendly and you could see the caring for what they were doing. All in all it was a great day for everyone, the smiles on the children’s faces, when they received their gifts was awesome. But besides the kids, you could see the smiles on all us adults that were there to share some love. This was the 1st annual toy drive for www.toys4autism.org but it will not be the last.