7-Year-Old Has Toy Drive For Hospital To Honor Her Late Sister
February 2, 2022 at 12:49 a.m.
7-Year-Old Has Toy Drive For Hospital To Honor Her Late Sister
By David [email protected]
The toys are being collected through March 11 - National Payton Slaymaker Day. The day is on the National Day Archives registry and it’s to bring awareness to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and brain tumors. All toys collected will go to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where Payton was treated after being diagnosed in 2019 with DIPG.
Avery, who turns 8 on April 1, said she wanted to do the toy drive “to help the children in the hospital if they’re scared to do a treatment or something. They can have a toy to play with, like a Barbie doll or something.”
DIPG is a type of high-grade glioma, a brain tumor that comes from cells called glia that surround, protect and otherwise support the nerve cells in the brain. It is always found in the brain stem and most common in elementary school-aged children, but can affect children of any age, according to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation website.
New, unwrapped toys can be dropped off at Stafford’s Solid Waste, 904 E. Pound Drive, Warsaw; Boggs Pit Stop, 1721 E. Center St., Warsaw; and Finley’s Fashion, 325 Argonne Road, Warsaw.
On Feb. 11, Finley’s is having a “Galentine’s” event. “So if anybody brings a toy, they get to spin the wheel for a certain percentage off,” said Kim Slaymaker, Avery and Payton’s mom.
Monetary donations also can be dropped off to Kim at Stafford’s or mailed to Fear Is A Liar Ministries, P.O. Box 1725, Warsaw, IN 46581. Checks can be made out to the ministry.
Any new toy that would “bring a smile to a kid’s face” is acceptable, except stuffed toys and blankets, which can’t be taken by the hospital, she said. The toys - which can include arts and crafts items - can be for children of any age, from infants to teenagers, and more toys for boys are needed.
Amazon cards also can be donated. Kim said the hospital likes those so that hospital staff can do the shopping.
There’s an Amazon Wish List where donations can be given. A direct link to “Avery’s Toy Drive” can be found on Payton’s Story on Facebook.
Kim said, “She has some items there that people can purchase and then it comes straight to us so they don’t have to mess with shipping and shipping charges and such.”
Andrew Slaymaker, the girls’ father, said Avery decided to do the toy drive about the second week of January. After it was announced on the Facebook page, “the next day people started dropping off gifts.” Within a week of starting the Amazon Wish List, packages were delivered to the Slaymakers’ Claypool home several times.
“There’s so many” toys, Avery said. A “big table” is set up in the garage for all of the donations.
The Slaymaker family will hand-deliver the donated toys to the hospital themselves, about the weekend after the toy drive ends.
The one-year anniversary of Payton’s passing is less than three months away.
“We’re doing OK,” Kim said. “I think once the year hits, like afterwards that we’ve experienced all the ‘firsts,’ you know.”
Andrew said, “We’ve kind of spent this last year reliving every moment. With Google and Facebook, it’s a reminder of what we were going through the previous year, and we really did relive those moments, kind of go through those emotions. If it was a rough day the year before ... you remember every detail.”
“But you also remember every victory, like when she got out of the hospital,” Kim said. “She wasn’t supposed to get out of the hospital. We spent 21 days there and she got out. It was neat to see that memory. And just the support that keeps popping up on the memories. It’s encouraging, but just sad sometimes, too.”
“A year ago, we were like, ‘Why are we in this situation?’ And now, a year later, we kind of look back and go, ‘Wow! How God used that situation.’ There’s a lot of lives that were changed through the valley that we went through, the trial, and we kind of see how God used us in those situations. In those times, you don’t see that,” Andrew said.
Kim pointed out the many “Fear Is A Liar” signs for Payton that are still up a year later.
“It’s amazing,” Andrew said. “We really feel like, after the one-year anniversary, it will be a step forward for the family. We’re hoping and expecting things to be easier for us.”
Kim said to keep Payton’s memory alive, they want to “do more awareness for kids.” Andrew said they’re already working on the second annual 5K for this year and other events. There were 300 runners in the first year of the 5K.
Kim said they’ll go out in the community and people will tell them they’re still praying for them.
“And that means a whole bunch. So much,” she said.
The toys are being collected through March 11 - National Payton Slaymaker Day. The day is on the National Day Archives registry and it’s to bring awareness to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and brain tumors. All toys collected will go to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where Payton was treated after being diagnosed in 2019 with DIPG.
Avery, who turns 8 on April 1, said she wanted to do the toy drive “to help the children in the hospital if they’re scared to do a treatment or something. They can have a toy to play with, like a Barbie doll or something.”
DIPG is a type of high-grade glioma, a brain tumor that comes from cells called glia that surround, protect and otherwise support the nerve cells in the brain. It is always found in the brain stem and most common in elementary school-aged children, but can affect children of any age, according to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation website.
New, unwrapped toys can be dropped off at Stafford’s Solid Waste, 904 E. Pound Drive, Warsaw; Boggs Pit Stop, 1721 E. Center St., Warsaw; and Finley’s Fashion, 325 Argonne Road, Warsaw.
On Feb. 11, Finley’s is having a “Galentine’s” event. “So if anybody brings a toy, they get to spin the wheel for a certain percentage off,” said Kim Slaymaker, Avery and Payton’s mom.
Monetary donations also can be dropped off to Kim at Stafford’s or mailed to Fear Is A Liar Ministries, P.O. Box 1725, Warsaw, IN 46581. Checks can be made out to the ministry.
Any new toy that would “bring a smile to a kid’s face” is acceptable, except stuffed toys and blankets, which can’t be taken by the hospital, she said. The toys - which can include arts and crafts items - can be for children of any age, from infants to teenagers, and more toys for boys are needed.
Amazon cards also can be donated. Kim said the hospital likes those so that hospital staff can do the shopping.
There’s an Amazon Wish List where donations can be given. A direct link to “Avery’s Toy Drive” can be found on Payton’s Story on Facebook.
Kim said, “She has some items there that people can purchase and then it comes straight to us so they don’t have to mess with shipping and shipping charges and such.”
Andrew Slaymaker, the girls’ father, said Avery decided to do the toy drive about the second week of January. After it was announced on the Facebook page, “the next day people started dropping off gifts.” Within a week of starting the Amazon Wish List, packages were delivered to the Slaymakers’ Claypool home several times.
“There’s so many” toys, Avery said. A “big table” is set up in the garage for all of the donations.
The Slaymaker family will hand-deliver the donated toys to the hospital themselves, about the weekend after the toy drive ends.
The one-year anniversary of Payton’s passing is less than three months away.
“We’re doing OK,” Kim said. “I think once the year hits, like afterwards that we’ve experienced all the ‘firsts,’ you know.”
Andrew said, “We’ve kind of spent this last year reliving every moment. With Google and Facebook, it’s a reminder of what we were going through the previous year, and we really did relive those moments, kind of go through those emotions. If it was a rough day the year before ... you remember every detail.”
“But you also remember every victory, like when she got out of the hospital,” Kim said. “She wasn’t supposed to get out of the hospital. We spent 21 days there and she got out. It was neat to see that memory. And just the support that keeps popping up on the memories. It’s encouraging, but just sad sometimes, too.”
“A year ago, we were like, ‘Why are we in this situation?’ And now, a year later, we kind of look back and go, ‘Wow! How God used that situation.’ There’s a lot of lives that were changed through the valley that we went through, the trial, and we kind of see how God used us in those situations. In those times, you don’t see that,” Andrew said.
Kim pointed out the many “Fear Is A Liar” signs for Payton that are still up a year later.
“It’s amazing,” Andrew said. “We really feel like, after the one-year anniversary, it will be a step forward for the family. We’re hoping and expecting things to be easier for us.”
Kim said to keep Payton’s memory alive, they want to “do more awareness for kids.” Andrew said they’re already working on the second annual 5K for this year and other events. There were 300 runners in the first year of the 5K.
Kim said they’ll go out in the community and people will tell them they’re still praying for them.
“And that means a whole bunch. So much,” she said.
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