TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital hosted its annual Christmas in July toy drive on Friday, bringing in thousands of dollars worth of toys to help the kids inside the hospital cope with their treatment.
“It could have been really life-threatening,” explained 17-year-old Alex Bonnano, who recently suffered a flare-up of Crohn’s Disease. “I’ve been here 23 days now, but the staff here has been amazing. Child life care has been amazing, and I couldn’t thank them anymore.”
Bonnano likes to play with the video games donated to the hospital.
“It personally makes me feel really good because I know that I’m really well off with my family,” he said of the donations. “But I know that there’s probably a lot of other kids in here that are not, especially when their family can’t be there with them and I think that means a lot to them.”
The first group to arrive at the hospital’s toy drive was Jeep Girls of Florida.