Carol Suchman Bought a Closing Toy Store’s Stock for NYC Shelter Kids

Carol Suchman Buys a Toy Store’s Stock for Children in NYC Shelters

Credit: Terence Ong, CC

In November 2015, New York philanthropist Carol Suchman saw that a neighbourhood party and toy shop in Manhattan’s West Village was closing down. Instead of picking up a few bargains, she bought everything left on the shelves and handed the whole lot to the city’s Department of Homeless Services, so that children living in shelters would have presents that winter. Local station NY1 reported the story on 16 November 2015, and it quickly travelled far beyond New York.

Here is what actually happened, why it mattered to the families receiving the gifts, and what anyone inspired by the idea can do on a smaller budget.

What Carol Suchman bought and where it went

The shop was the Hudson Party Store, a small business selling toys, party goods and stationery. Suchman noticed the closing-down notice while walking through her own neighbourhood, got in touch with the owner and agreed a price for the remaining stock. The amount was never made public, and she did not seem interested in publicising it.

What she received was a very large and very mixed inventory: thousands of toys and stuffed animals, plus boxes of art materials and school supplies. Rather than sorting it herself into a handful of gift bags, she passed it to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), the agency that runs New York City’s shelter system. Its staff could then match items to children of different ages across many shelters.

According to NY1, this was not a one-off. Suchman, who with her husband had once run a successful technology company, already gave hundreds of toys every year, including birthday presents for children in foster care in Brooklyn. The store purchase was simply the largest version of a habit she already had.

How the city reacted

DHS works with many donors each December, from companies to churches and schools, so the staff are used to generosity. What surprised them was the scale and the form of this gift. Antonio Rodriquez, who organised special events for the agency, told NY1 it was “the first time anybody ever bought out an entire store” to give to children in the shelters.

For the agency, a donation like this solves a practical problem. Holiday drives tend to bring in lots of items for small children and far fewer for older kids. A whole shop’s stock, with stationery, craft kits and supplies alongside the soft toys, gives staff more to choose from when they are trying to find something suitable for a ten-year-old or a teenager, not only for toddlers.

Why a toy matters to a child in a shelter

It is easy to think of toys as a luxury when a family has lost its home. Social workers and teachers often see it differently. Children in shelters may have moved several times, left most of their belongings behind and changed schools. A present that belongs only to them is a small piece of normal childhood, and something to show friends when the holidays end.

The scale of need in New York is large. The DHS shelter system held about 65,000 people at the end of 2015, and a large share of them were families with children. Since then the numbers have risen sharply: the Coalition for the Homeless reported more than 132,000 people in the city’s shelters in July 2024, including over 45,000 children. A single donation cannot change those figures, but it can make a real difference to how one December feels for many of those children.

School supplies are particularly useful. Children who arrive at a shelter mid-year often lack the basics, and a notebook, pens and a backpack help them keep up in class and avoid standing out.

Why the story spread so widely

The idea had an unusual mix of qualities. It combined something sad, a long-standing local shop going out of business, with something hopeful. It was also concrete: people could picture a single woman walking into a closing shop and buying the lot. Many charity stories involve large organisations and abstract sums; this one involved a neighbour and a shop window.

It also quietly answered a common question about giving: what do you do with stock that would otherwise be sold off cheaply or thrown away? Suchman’s purchase meant the shop owner was paid for inventory that might otherwise have gone to clearance, while the goods went to children who would not have been shopping there at all.

How to help children in shelters without buying a whole store

Most people cannot buy an entire shop, but the same thinking works at any scale. A few practical points, based on how shelter and toy-drive programmes generally operate:

Contact the organisation first. City agencies, shelters and charities usually have a donations office and a list of what they need. Some cannot accept used items for hygiene and safety reasons.
Think about older children. Teenagers are often the most overlooked. Gift cards, headphones, books, art sets and sports equipment are typically welcome.
Give unwrapped items unless told otherwise, so staff can check them and match them to the right child.
Remember the rest of the year. Donations spike in December. Birthdays, back-to-school season and summer are quieter times when supplies run low, which is exactly the gap Suchman filled with her birthday gifts for foster children.
Look locally. When a shop near you closes, its owner may be glad to sell remaining stock in bulk to a donor or a charity, and you may be able to arrange a fair price that helps both sides.

A small idea that scaled

Carol Suchman did not invent a new kind of charity. She noticed an opportunity that most people walked past, a closing shop full of toys, and connected it with an agency that knew exactly where the toys were needed. The result was a winter with more gifts in New York’s shelters, and a reminder that generosity often works best when it is practical and quietly organised.

Sources: NY1 News (16 November 2015); True Activist (Amanda Froelich); Wikipedia: New York City Department of Homeless Services; Wikipedia: Homelessness in New York City. Photo: Terence Ong, CC licence.

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