Toy drive delivers festive magic to Marylebone children

London Business School gives presents to children from deprived areas

Students, faculty and staff at London Business School will donate more than 400 presents to local children aged between 0 and 12 years and above, as part of an annual community toy drive.

Parts of Marylebone are among the top 5% most deprived areas in England, with high levels of unemployment, crime and inadequate housing.

The toy drive, first established in 2009, is organised by London Business School’s Community Action Group with the support of the Student Volunteering Club. Students, faculty and staff buy gifts for children who are living in deprived areas or are currently being treated at St Mary’s Hospital paediatric intensive care unit. This is the seventh year the School has run the toy drive and so far more than 3,000 toys have been donated.

The gifts are handed out at local nurseries, a youth club, children’s parties on the Lisson Green Estate and in Church Street, and the children's ward at St Mary's Hospital. The local groups include:

- Luton Street Nursery
- Flossie’s Playgroup
- Lisson Green Nursery
- The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of St Mary’s Hospital
- London Business School party for Fourth Feathers Youth Club (held on campus, 8 December 2015) 
- Three additional community parties organised by our charity partners, Vital Regeneration and City West Homes.

Tina Clark, Chair of London Business School's Community Action Group, says: “One of the biggest things preventing people from volunteering is lack of time. That’s the beauty of the toy drive; it’s such a relatively simple way for a busy person to contribute, and when multiplied many times over, it makes quite an impact.”