Belvidere North High School student organizes toy drive for children in need

BELVIDERE, Ill. (WTVO) — A student at Belvidere North High School created a toy drive to give to area children in need.

Hugo Nunez was inspired by his previous volunteering efforts to organize his own drive.

“I helped out with a lot of these types of events,” Nunez said. “They motivated me to try to make my own event by myself and be able to grow and see where this can take me, and possible make more and more events like this.”

Nunez said he wants children in the community to have toys to play with.

“I wanted to try and find an event where everybody could have fun, mostly kids in need,” he said. “By me doing this event, I feel like it would help a lot of kids.”

Betsy Mendez is the mother of Nunez and said she is proud of the work her son is doing to help those in need.

“We were surprised; it caught us off guard,” Mendez said. “We weren’t expecting this idea, but it made us proud of the fact that this is an event that he is creating on his own.”

So far, Nunez has received over 200 donations, including toys, books and puzzles. Nunez said the goal of the toy drive is to give back to his community.

“Basically, this event is a whole cycle of giving back,” Nunez said. “There’s nothing that’s coming towards me; I’m not going to get any money out of this.”

The official toy drive will be April 26 from 2-4pm at 6205 Shattuck Rd. in Belvidere.

At the drive, Nunez said bicycles will be raffled off.

Attendees are asked to bring one can of food per person as well.