HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A mother and several community members are torn after someone stole more than $100 worth of toys from a donation box at a hospital in Henrico.
Henrico police is looking for who is responsible for stealing more than $100 worth of toys donated to a drop box at St. Mary’s Hospital, located on Bremo Road.
Donna Reynolds said her son Kellan loved playing with toys during his stay at St. Mary’s Hospital. The joy of turning on a new toy made up for the constant doctors visits, and helped pass the time as he waited for testing due to his rare mitochondrial disease.
Kellan lost his fight in 2020 and for the past four years, his mother Donna Reynolds has collected toys from the community to donate to kids being treated at St. Mary’s Hospital in his honor. It is her hope, along with others from the Kellan’s Legacy of Love nonprofit organization, that a new toy would bring the same joy to other patients as it did to Kellan.
“We want to be able to brighten their faces, because hospital visits are not fun. Doctor’s visits are not fun,” said Kimberley Waldrop, Vice President of Kellan’s Legacy of Love.
Last year, the organization was able to donate over 1,300 toys. This year, they were about one third of the way to their goal to donate over 1,500 toys before a group of people stole more than $150 dollars worth of toys from one of the several drop box locations located throughout the Metro Richmond Area.
“It was kind of shocking to know that somebody came and not took just one toy out of the box, but emptied the whole box at this place. It was kind of heartbreaking,” Waldrop said.
Despite this, Waldrop said the community has continued to bring them encouragement and they are still looking to reach their goal by March 1st.
“I don’t know what their situation is, but if you would have asked questions or just reached out, we probably could have helped you in your situation as well,” said Waldrop about the people that stole the toys from the donation box. “But just to know that they were taken out of the box just kind of put us offside to where we don’t know whether we even want to do donation boxes next year.”
Anyone with information about who may have stolen the toys from the donation box can call the Henrico County Police Division at 804-501-5000.
To donate to Kellan’s Memorial Toy Drive, visit one of several drop box locations across Central Virginia, or buy toys listed in the registries on Amazon and Target.
