Kinley is one of Kindersley’s youngest volunteers

By Joan Janzen

Kinley Hildebrandt is one of the youngest volunteers in Kindersley. For the past eight years, Kinley and her mom, Candis, have organized a toy drive for Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital. The ten-year-old said the toy drive is important “because it helps kids in the hospital so they’re not bored.” And Kinley knows all about that.

She spent a lot of time in hospitals during her young life, having been diagnosed with Biliary Atresia at the age of 3 months. In 2019, she received a liver transplant at the age of six.

The Kindersley Kinette club is helping Kinley with this years’ toy drive.

10-year-old Kinley Hildebrandt

The toy drive occurs each year around Kinley’s birthday on April 16th. She celebrated her 10th birthday at the pool with a few friends this year. Now she’s old enough to help load the toys in the truck to be delivered to Saskatoon. Fitting all the bags and boxes in their suburban is a lot like putting a Tetris puzzle together, and it gets more challenging every year. Candis said she puts the back seats down and fills it from the bottom to the top. This year they will deliver the toys sometime in May.
Although she was much too young to be of much help with the first few toy drives, Kinley wasn’t too young to benefit from them. She really liked stuffies that she received from Teddy Bears Anonymous, based out of Regina. She now has twelve stuffies in her collection.

Her mom remembers when Kinley went to the hospital for a scope. After they left, they made their annual donation of toys. “She was admitted once again, and previously we had noticed there weren’t too many items around, and all of a sudden, there was a treasure chest where she was allowed to pick something. And some of the stuff looked familiar,” Candis recalled.

Kinley participated in many of the hospital’s Thursday night bingo and would sometimes win a prize. Kids confined to their beds use walkie-talkies to participate in the game, and many prizes are needed. Candis and Kinley make sure they have suitable prize items since they hand out multiple prizes and go through a lot of items.

Every year different groups, businesses and organizations help out with the toy drive. Last year it was the high school and ambulance crew, and this year the Kinette club stepped up to help.

The Hildebrandt family has friends and family members who faithfully contribute each and every year. They also have several friends from the United States who donate. Cash donations are used to buy all the additional items that are needed, and with inflated prices, those donations are vitally important.

Candis said they always receive emails from the hospital saying how much they appreciate it, especially when they are so low on donations. However, Kinley and her family will probably never discover the full and immense impact of their annual toy drive and all their hard work.

Thanks, Kinley, for being one of Kindersley’s youngest volunteers! Keep up the excellent work.