PILL HILL — Nine-year-old Samuel Love, whose toy drive to help Hurricane Sandy victims attracted national attention, wants to do it again.
This time, he is hoping to help children affected by floods this summer in Denver and tornadoes in Oklahoma. He plans to begin the drive on Oct. 18 — his 10th birthday.
"I like helping people. That is why I am doing this," said the fourth-grader from Pill Hill, who attends Beasley Elementary School, 5255 S. State St. “I want to make kids smile through tough times."
His goal is to collect 1,000 toys for Oklahoma kids and 1,000 for kids in Denver.
Samuel's father, Victor Love, said he is proud of Samuel for continuing to help those less fortunate.
"He's a great kid. All my kids are great and I couldn't be more proud of them," said Love, who is co-owner of Josephine's Cooking, a soul-food restaurant in Chatham. "Christmas is right around the corner and we want to start collecting toys early."
They plan to hold a 9:45 a.m. press conference on Oct. 18 at Beasley, where more details, such as drop-off locations for toys, will be released. Toys collected will be delivered to Denver and Oklahoma on Dec. 18.
He said he got the original idea for a toy drive last year after watching footage of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy on TV, and “started thinking about how those kids might not get any gifts ... because their parents can’t afford it.”
He ended up collecting nearly 600 toys in Chicago and another 200 from New York. The total included $3,000 worth of toys donated by toy-maker LeapFrog.
He even was flown to New York to appear on "Anderson Live" with Anderson Cooper to talk about the effort.
He said he hoped to collect more toys this time because he has more time to organize the drive. He learned from the last drive that "helping people is hard work and takes a lot of time but it's worth it."
When he's not helping others or going to school or church, Samuel said he enjoys playing baseball, video games, listening to Michael Jackson songs and watching his favorite TV show, “Jessie,” on the Disney Channel.
And Samuel said he would like to see more adults helping others as a result of the toy drive.
“I really hope my actions lead to more people, not just kids, taking time to help people in times of need," he said.
