{"id":2043,"date":"2014-12-31T13:32:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T18:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/making-holidays-bright\/"},"modified":"2014-12-31T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T18:32:38","slug":"making-holidays-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/making-holidays-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Express of Dallas Makes Daycare Holidays Bright on Meredith Vieira Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tSupporting the community and charitable organizations is integral to the mission of Learning Express Toys. During the holidays, especially, both local stores and the home office increase their toy donations\u2014making children\u2019s dreams come true!<\/p>\n

This year, Learning Express Toys of Dallas was delighted to participate in the Wish Booth that The Meredith Vieira Show<\/a> set up in their city. Vieira connected Michelle Brown, owner of Katie\u2019s Little Angels, with LE Toys of Dallas just prior to the holidays. When asked by the show what she most wanted for the holidays, Brown said: \u201cMy wish is for the children at my daycare–I just wish they have a wonderful Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s wish became a reality thanks to Hal Cook, owner of the Dallas toy store. After hearing from The Meredith Vieira Show, Cook immediately offered a $2,500 gift card to be given to Brown on the show. \u201cHelping those in our community has always been part of who we are,\u201d said Cook who opened the family run store in Snider Plaza 18 years ago.<\/p>\n

Brown had no idea that she was being chosen as the wish winner until she was led onto the set to meet Vieira. Katie\u2019s Little Angels cares for children from lower income families. \u201cMichelle goes above and beyond for the children,\u201d said Vieira. \u201cShe even picks them up and drives them home in her own car.\u201d Every year, Brown asks all of the children to write a wish list and tries to buy at least one item on the list for each child. \u201cAt Christmas, she loves to play Santa to the kids,\u201d said Vieria. With 67 children currently attending the daycare, though, money for gifts is a struggle for Brown. \u201cMy obligation to these kids is to make their lives better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The heartwarming segment<\/a> of The Meredith Vieria Show aired in November, and Brown enjoyed picking out her toys at the Dallas store a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

Based in Devens, MA, the Learning Express Toys home office also regularly donates toys to local children. Last month, the home office took several large boxes of toys to area organizations, including Toys for Tots and Lazarus House Ministries\u2014a homeless shelter in Lawrence. This year, instead of choosing the location for the toys, the home office posted a message on its Facebook page seeking requests for places to donate. Because of the toy shortage at Toys for Tots this year, they were the overwhelming favorite of the Facebook followers.<\/p>\n

Spreading joy through toys brings smiles to the children who receive them and to all of those in the Learning Express Toys family!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporting the community and charitable organizations is integral to the mission of Learning Express Toys. During the holidays, especially, both local stores and the home office increase their toy donations\u2014making children\u2019s dreams come true! This year, Learning Express Toys of Dallas was delighted to participate in the Wish Booth that The Meredith Vieira Show set…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[30,51],"class_list":["post-2043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-franchise-news-article","category-philanthrophy","tag-local-events","tag-wow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}