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Annual holiday drive seeks toys for kids in foster care

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This Saturday the nonprofit Foster Alliance and Children, Youth & Families Department are partnering to host their annual holiday toy drive to support children in foster care.

This statewide initiative is helping to bring joy through donated toys to children in the state and tribal foster care systems.

The Foster Alliance is encouraging community members, businesses, and organizations to host toy drives, donate unwrapped new toys, or shop from the Foster Alliance’s Amazon wish list.

Stephanie Juarez, program manager for The Foster Alliance, said it’s important to donate to foster youth.

“We're seeing a lot of smaller-age children going into care and we just want to be able to provide that moment of joy during this holiday season especially,” she said.

She said the holiday toy drive event will be like a Christmas wonderland.

“We'll have Santa there,” she said. “There will be a toy station. There will be some appetizers, some food for families to enjoy while they browse around.”

The holiday toy drive event is already sold out, but the organization is still accepting toy donations.

Corrected: December 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM MST
This story originally noted that 10,000 children were in foster care in New Mexico. According to the most recent numbers from CYFD, there are 2,130 children currently in state care.
Jeanette DeDios is from the Jicarilla Apache and Diné Nations and grew up in Albuquerque, NM. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2022 where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Journalism, English and Film. She’s a former Local News Fund Fellow. Jeanette can be contacted at jeanettededios@kunm.org or via Twitter @JeanetteDeDios.
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