2013-12-01
Cassidy Seamon
When Cassidy Seamon was in the third grade, she had a cousin who was ill and in the hospital at Christmas time. She asked her mother Doreen if Santa could take the gifts intended for her and deliver them instead to other children who had to be in the hospital over Christmas.
“So my mom and I went shopping,” Cassidy said. “We bought some toys and some clothing items and we took them to Children’s Hospital on Christmas Day. I can still remember giving a teddy bear to a little girl and seeing how happy she was. It was a special experience for me.”
When she turned 16, Cassidy decided she wanted to do something to make a bigger impact for the children at the hospital, so her mother introduced her to Beth Fuller, president of Your Community Foundation (YCF), and together they started The Little Toy Train Endowment Fund. “I met with Beth during that summer,” Cassidy said. “She told me we could set up a foundation and showed me how it could be self-sustaining so it would continue on after I go away to college and even after that.”
“Beth was so good with Cassidy,” her mother said. “She talked to her like she was an adult and told her how to organize a fund that would raise money to perpetuate the hospital toy donations.”
Cassidy got the Little Toy Train Fund off the ground with her first fund-raising event the following spring, followed in the fall by a competition between University and Morgantown high schools. Volunteers placed mason jars in all of the classrooms and the students donated money toward the fund, in addition to asking friends and family to contribute. The home room class at each school that raised the most money received gift cards donated by Naticakes frozen yogurt shop in Morgantown.
Each school raised about $1,200, and outside contributions brought the total to around $7,000 – enough money to start the endowment and donate $1,000 worth of Christmas toys to the hospital. “We got a list from the hospital of the things they needed, like board games, video games and arts and crafts supplies,” Cassidy said. “We were able to get everything on the list.” The gifts were delivered by Cassidy and other students from the two high schools, along with some family members including Cassidy’s cousin, who is still being treated for a medical condition.
“This year, we’re having the school drive again,” said Cassidy, who is now in her senior year at UHS. The campaign has already started and will continue through November at University High, and will begin after the first of the year at Morgantown High.
“We also want to raise more money by selling some school gear like sweatshirts, t-shirts and hats,” she said. She is looking now for apparel she can sell. “We will also be asking for outside donations. Our goal is to raise more money than last year so we can fully fund the endowment and still have enough money to buy the gifts.”
She is also thinking about staging a golf tournament or a charity walk next summer to keep building up the fund.
Cassidy said she got the name of the fund from a Christmas song, “Old Toy Trains,” which her family always sang around Christmas time. “She always loved that song and decided to use it to name her fund,” Doreen says. It goes like this:
Old toy trains, little toy tracks
Little boy toys coming from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy, don’t you think it’s time you were in bed?
Close your eyes
Listen to the skies
All is calm, all is well
Soon you’ll hear Kris Kringle and the jingle bells.
Any individual, business or organization can contribute any amount to the Little Toy Train Fund in care of YCF, P.O. Box 409, Morgantown, WV 26507.