Jessie Tendayi, pictured here, has put aside a portion of her paycheck every year for the past seven holiday seasons to buy gifts for sick children at Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, a suburb of Chicago. This year, she reportedly spent $5,000 on 1,000 toys. (Courtesy Advocate Children's Facebook page)
An Illinois woman whose work involves tending to sick children every day has put her personal finances toward helping make their holiday brighter— for the eighth year in a row.
WGNTV reported that Jessie Tendayi, a food service aide at Advocate Trinity Hospital, began purchasing gifts for young hospital patients in 2009, when she doled out 100 toys. This year, she continued the good deed on Tuesday by delivering 10 times as many presents to youngsters being treated at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn.
Tendayi saves a portion from each paycheck and sometimes takes her coworkers’ shifts to cover the cost of the children’s gifts, WGNTV reported.
“God put it in my heart to do something for these children,” Tendayi, 55, who does not have any children of her own, told InsideEdition.com. “I just wanted to do something to put a smile on children who are hurting, so I came up with a plan to start to buy toys for them.”
Inside Edition reported that Tendayi withdraws the money she saves at the end of each October, budgets for shopping around Thanksgiving, and reserves a U-Haul truck to transport all the gifts to he hospital.
According to WGNTV, Tendayi spent $5,000 on 1,000 toys this year.
Inside Edition reported that this year Toys R Us honored Tendayi for her generosity by giving her a $5,000 gift card so she can get a jump-start on next year’s shopping.
“It’s going to make my year easier,” she told InsideEdition.com. “I’m just blessed to do what I’m doing and I’m looking forward to [doing] more than what I’m doing now.”
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