Giving Kids Hope and Joy with Rick’s Toys for Kids

During this special time of year, it’s always a privilege to reach out and help others. One of the ways we do this at Alaska Air Forwarding is through our partnership with Rick’s Toys for Kids. If you are not familiar with this organization, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you a little about this great charity and the impact they are making in the lives of kids within the community.

Rick’s Toys for Kids History

In September of 1995, Seattle Mariner announcers Rick Rizzs and the late Dave Henderson, were listening to the news after a Mariner broadcast. The news report was talking about the escalating numbers of homeless men and women in the Seattle area. Both men wondered about the children who were likely part of these growing numbers of homeless. Although neither Rick nor Dave knew the answer to this question, they did know that they wanted to do something that would make a difference in the lives of these kids. The difference they decided to make was to find these kids and make sure they had toys for Christmas.

They reached out to several Mariner players who were eager to help and ended up giving away more than 300 toys to homeless and disadvantaged kids that Christmas season. However, both men realized the need was far greater and knew they would need more toys in order to help more kids. Although the guys from the clubhouse were incredibly generous, they knew that reaching out to others beyond the Mariners organization was the key to growing their effort. They decided to host an auction at Safeco Field and sell autographed memorabilia. The results of this auction were encouraging and as this became an annual event, eventually a partnership was formed with the Seattle Mariners RBI club in 2000. Since then, Toys for Kids fundraising efforts have grown and now they are providing more than 10,000 toys per year as they reach many kids through a number of local charities.

• The Country Doctor
• First Place School
• Union Gospel Mission-Family Services Women & Children’s Shelter
• Broadview Women’s Shelter
• YWCA Seattle Emergency Housing
• Harborview Medical Center
• Vision House
• Hopelink
• Atlantic Street Center
• Ronald McDonald House-Seattle
• The Healing Center

How We Help

Here at Alaska Air Forwarding, we have the privilege of “being Santa” by actually getting the toys into the hands of the kids. We work with local retailers, who collect the purchased items, gather them and distribute them to the happy kids at the various events.
Dominic Ferrari of Alaska Air Forwarding says, “This is the BEST shipping job of the entire year!”
We are very grateful for the many years of successful business. Being part of Toys for Kids, enables us to give back to this wonderful community by doing what we do best: getting goods into the hands of those in need.