Toy Drive/Bike Run to Benefit Brightside for Families and Children

SPRINGFIELD — The children served by Brightside for Families and Children will be the recipients of the Hope for the Holidays Toy Drive. The three-day event will begin on Friday, Nov. 3, and continue Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Walmart store in Chicopee. During those two days, toys, gift cards, and monetary donations will be collected from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will also be a toy drop available at Indian Motorcycle of Springfield at 962 Southampton Road in Westfield.

On Sunday, Nov. 5, the Toy Run/Bike Ride will begin at 9:30 a.m. from Walmart to Brightside located at Providence Behavioral Hospital in Holyoke at 11 a.m. The entry fee for the ride will be a donated toy, gift card, or monetary donation. Immediately following the run, there will be an after-party featuring Peter Newland and Radioxile and the band Esperanto at the Moose Club at 244 Fuller Road in Chicopee.

Event organizers Bruce Rivest, Melvyn Hook, and Peter Silvano have worked to make the Hope for the Holidays Toy Run a successful annual event. Rivest originally contacted the Fund Development Office at Mercy Medical Center about coordinating a toy drive for Brightside. Adopted as a child himself from Brightside in 1970, Rivest knows first-hand the importance Brightside plays in this community. Hook, also adopted as a child through a separate agency, has joined him in the effort to ensure that every child and family supported by Brightside has hope and joy this holiday season.

Major sponsors of the event are Indian Motorcycle of Springfield, American Legion Post 275 of Chicopee, Western Mass News, Haymond Law, Custom Identity Apparel, Papa John’s, Red’s Towing, ZZ & Co BBQ, Ed Popielarczyk’s Magical Moments, C.O.B.B., Springfield Motorcycle Show, and Connecticut Cruise News Super Sunday Motorcycle Show.