Over 16 000 toys collected for Cape Town’s annual Toy Run

A heart-warming Toy Run in Cape Town

On Sunday, 24 November, the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service asssited in collecting thousands of toys for Toy Run Cape Town, the annual charity drive for children in foster homes, orphanages and places of safety.

According to the City, as many as 16 000 toys, which included plush toys, toy cars and dolls were all donated for the drive, which ended in an event at Killarney International Raceway.

“Our firefighters heeded the call and so we opened all of our fire stations this past week and asked our residents to have their children consider donating some of their old toys. And the generosity was heart-warming.” Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith said.

“We loaded everything into one of our fire engines and along with a group of our firefighters, we escorted it with the procession into Killarney. Cape Town came out in numbers and while the organisers will spend the next two weeks sorting, packing and coordinating the toys to the various recipients, they are confident we have exceeded the ultimate goal which seemed so impossible at first,” Smith added.

Cape Town’s firefighters also said that they were overwhelmed by the support shown by communities, and have committed to exploring more options to sustain such collection drives throughout the coming year, using Fire Stations as accessible drop-off facilities.

A ‘drive’ for charity

Toy Run doesn’t only happen in Cape Town. According to their website, Toy Run is South Africa’s largest motorcycle ride – all in the name of charity. 

Every year at the end of November or beginning December, tens of thousands of bikes get together around the country to collect toys for the needy children of South Africa. Thousands of toys are strapped to bikes and then paraded through the cities.