“Teach your children well” are the wise lyrics of a popular Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song. The phase may also serve as single mom Mallory Davenport’s child-rearing philosophy. Davenport’s 9-year-old son Tyler is spending his summer gathering donated toys and the funds to purchase them for young patients at Oakland Children’s Hospital. The Toy Drive will wrap up September 1 and soon after Tyler will deliver the toys himself.
“Ty was watching an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on which a family with a brave young girl, who was ill with a rare blood disorder, was both raising awareness about that disorder and taking toys into local hospitals to other sick children,” said Ms. Davenport, who has lived in Sonoma for 18 years. “During that show he said to me that he wanted to do that too for sick children.”
The show had reminded Tyler of when he was five and spent a considerable amount time in the hospital. Following surgery to correct a congenital anomaly, nurses and hospital volunteers gave a grateful Tyler toys and colorful pajamas. Afterwards, Tyler remembers feeling so much better. This is what he hopes the toys he’s currently collecting will do for other sick girls and boys.
During the July 15 Sonoma City Council meeting, Mayor Ken Brown recognized Tyler for his good work.
“It felt good, kind of embarrassing, because I didn’t do this to be recognized,” said Tyler, who will be a fourth-grader at Dunbar Elementary School this fall. “I’m doing this to try to help people who need help. I like the mayor – he’s cool!”
The Toy Drive is not Tyler’s first philanthropic effort. One morning, two years ago, Tyler was complaining he didn’t want to go to school that day. His mother told him about a boy in Africa that she had recently seen profiled on a news show. This boy would wake up at 4 a.m. every morning, walk through an area of extreme poverty where violence occurred regularly, and catch the bus that would take another hour to reach his school. The boy did this because he realized an education was his only way out.
The following week, Tyler told his mother that he wanted to help people like the boy in Africa. His second-grade teacher, Holly Campbell, steered him towards African Well Fund, a non-profit group that raises funds for building and maintaining wells in Africa, where half of the population does not have access to safe drinking water. Tyler received overwhelming support from his school’s student body leadership program. Collection jars soon started popping up all over the school and students were filling them with pennies.
“Once the generous folks in the community got wind of Ty’s “Big Idea,” as it became to be known, they started donating as well,” said Ms. Davenport, who works as a Service Center Coordinator for the Salvation Army in Sonoma. “We had jars set up at some local businesses and we took the coins to be counted at Lucky. Store Manager Tim Church, Ty’s mentor, helped us with the donations.”
Tyler’s idea was to experience the hardships some African students faced by walking a mile in their shoes. His objective was to collect 84,480 pennies, because when laid in a straight line they would be one-mile long. In the end, Tyler exceeded his goal by raising $2,250 for the African Well Fund. Tyler is still featured on the organization’s Web site.
“Mom says she’s proud of me every day and that she’s the luckiest mom on earth,” said Tyler, who just started taking piano lessons and wants to start playing football this season. “I tell her every day that she’s the best mom in the world.”
What does the future hold for such an industrious boy? Tyler says he wants to be a video game tester and a concert pianist when he grows up. For now, he seems intent on making the world a better place. When he’s finished with The Toy Drive, Tyler wants to start a campaign to stop littering.
How to donate: The toys must be new and in their original packages. They may be dropped off at the following locations: Bank of the West in Sonoma; Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma Valley; Cuts Etc. in Maxwell Village; Salvation Army in Sonoma; and the WillMar Center. For more information about what types of toys should be donated, go to childrenshospitaloakland.org.
