Charity donates toys to hospital

More than a dozen bags filled with toys were laid out on the sidewalk in front of Potomac Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

It took three carts and quite a few more hands to haul the 300 toys up to the pediatrics department.

Four of those hands belonged to Ellen and Steve Tomczyk, whose work over the last eight years made the whole thing possible.

The Springfield couple started Cole’s Closet, a charity that distributes toys to children with terminal, critical or chronic illness, in 2000, a year after their 6-month-old son, Cole, died from an undiagnosed brain disease.

When that anniversary arrived, the Tomczyk’s asked friends and family to bring a toy they could donate to a local hospital. They got 400.

Over the years, the charity expanded, opening closets at six hospitals in the region and distributing around 16,000 toys.

On Thursday, the charity opened its seventh closet, this one at Potomac Hospital.

Opening those closets was a way to ease the couple through their own grieving process, they said.

But it’s also been a way to bring joy to children and their families and to honor Cole.

“It’s the hardest time in your life if you’re losing a child and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Ellen Tomczyk said. “It’s extremely painful and tragic.”

The toys bring smiles to the children’s faces and are a good way for them and their siblings to pass the time. And when one of the hospitals calls needing more, “we bring them,” Tomczyk said.

When the group got to the third floor, the bags were put in front of the nurses’ station and Cole’s Closet volunteers immediately began stocking the closet with everything from the game Clue to Barbie dolls.

While the toys were still being unloaded, Tomczyk brought a few toys to 2-year-old Markus Albright.

Markus had his tonsils and adenoids removed that morning. He was lying down, watching some TV with his grandmother and uncle there.

“How you doing, buddy? We brought you some toys,” she said, leaning over the crib inside the hospital room. “You get to keep those.”

Tomczyk talked with the boy’s family about how he was doing and wished them the best before leaving.

Carlene Casten, director of pediatrics at the hospital, said having new toys and games to give to the children staying in the hospital and their siblings is a welcome addition.

It will help “make [the stay] a more positive experience,” she said.

While the average stay for patients in Potomac Hospital’s pediatrics ward is relatively short — around two days — Casten said she remembers when she was 5 and in the hospital with pneumonia.
And she remembers hospital staff bringing in toys and games into her room, and how that helped “break up the monotony.”

For more information on Cole’s Closet, visit www.colescloset.org.