Students from Island Trees Middle School donated 1,000 kids meal toys to New Island Hospital last week after setting up a collection box in the middle school's office and asking for donations from local fast food corporations.

The toy drive was spearheaded by Cathy Schaedtler, mom of middle school student Scott Schaedtler, who decided a few years ago to donate some unopened kids meal toys that were laying around her house. Her son, now in middle school, was not even 5 when he made his first donation to the hospital, which proudly displayed a "donated by Scott" sign near the toys he had brought in. In July of 2001, Schaedtler presented the idea to the middle school and 180 toys were raised and donated to New Island Hospital.

"This started when Scott was about 4 or 5; we would save the toys that he wasn't using and when we would get about 15 or 20 we would give them to the hospital," Schaedtler said. "About a year and a half ago I decided to open it up to the school to see how many we could get."

Schaedtler noted that when she opened it up to the middle school again this year, she hoped to raise about 100 kids meal toys. Thanks to her efforts, she was able to raise exactly 1,000 toys.

In addition to having a collection box set up at the middle school, Schaedtler reached out to local fast food restaurants, including McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's. The three corporations donated a total of 500 kids meal toys, matching the 500 raised by middle school students and an alumni of the district, Ricardo Ruiz, who donated 200 toys himself when he heard about the toy drive.

"I was hoping for 100 and I got 1,000," Schaedtler said, explaining that the kids meal toys are perfect to donate to hospitals as they are all unopened and therefore sterile and safe for hospitalized children.

"This does not cost anybody anything," she said. "They're getting the toys anyway, they're not opening them, just throwing them in the closet. So why not use them for something that really could help somebody."

Schaedtler said that she learned, through her experience with the toy drive, that much of the success of the drive is largely due to the fact that middle school students seem to have such an abundance of these toys. She noted that grammar school children still play with the toys when they receive them but middle schoolers, and many adults, may still purchase a kids meal but won't open the toy it comes with.

Schaedtler said that she would like to continue doing this in the future and plans to, as her son will be in the middle school for two more years.

The toys were donated to New Island Hospital on Nov. 21. When some students came down to donate the toys, Paul Haberman, director of nursing services in the emergency department, told them that the toys make it much easier to deal with the children who end up in the emergency room, that oftentimes they forget what they came in for because they have a new toy to play with. Possibly the best part for the children, other than having a toy to play with during their hospital visit, is the fact that they can take the toy home with them when they leave.