Giving Back Has Become a Passion for the McNeelys
Cabell Midland High School senior Ethan McNeely will play his final season of tennis next spring a robust picture of health—one that contrasts sharply with a bleak 2010 scenario. On the eve of his fourth birthday, Ethan suffered a stroke, which led to a 10-day stay at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
“We never found out why he had the stroke, but we took something that was scary and turned it into something positive,” said Ethan’s mother, Mary Jane McNeely.
That positive is Ethan’s Toy Box, a thriving project that has filled the Hoops Family Children’s Hospital with toys, games, puzzles, video controllers, and other aids that Child Life Specialists use for patient care.
The decade-long series of fundraisers and toy drives, boosted by widespread community support, has raised more than $100,000 in funds and furnishings for the hospital.
Since the family never received a diagnosis for the cause of her son’s illness, Mary Jane said the Toy Box has helped them accept what happened and move forward with helping other families.
Mrs. McNeely, a dental hygienist at Eric Ford and Miranda Kimble Family Dentistry, said the idea came from their daughter, Abigail, now a junior at West Virginia University. Present for therapy and other tests, the then-six-year-old girl marveled at the toys, matchbox racers, and stuffed animals Ethan received during treatment.
“Abby was curious how they had so many toys to give,” her mother recalled. “[Husband] Chris and I explained that hospitals have to do fundraisers to keep those things on hand.”
“When we got home, Abby got construction paper and markers so she could start a fundraiser to collect toys for the hospital. Bob and Jennifer Johnson and their daughter, Sarah, were there. The girls made flyers asking everyone to bring a toy to the hospital.”
Originally envisioned as a backyard cookout, the first event turned into a pool party at the Guyan Country Club, with admission being $10 or a toy. Mary Jane was shocked by the results. Numerous businesses, churches, and families donated baskets or raffle prizes.
The McNeelys also conducted toy drives at Barboursville Elementary when their children were in grade school; Abby organized one her junior year of high school.
Activities were stifled by the pandemic, but Ethan is resuming the toy drives with a huge event next spring at Cabell Midland. The funds will go to help build the endowment the hospital set up last year with a portion of the funds remaining in the Toy Box account.
“It’s been extremely rewarding,” says Mary Jane, who—when Ethan and Abby were growing up—would celebrate her and Chris’s anniversary every August by delivering toys to Hoops. “I would have trouble putting it into words.”
