ResortHatch

A wrapped surprise lands in the hands of a child. On a Caribbean island where sunshine sparkles and the ocean stretches endlessly, the holidays arrive with a special kind of magic. This colorful package carries excitement from far beyond the horizon.

Inside is a toy, but even before the paper is unwrapped, it represents something more: a moment of joy, a reminder that the season brings people together across oceans and borders.

The child smiles, fingers already tugging at the bow, ready to discover what’s inside, another small moment of holiday magic, shared and celebrated.

The toys have been arriving all month at the dreamiest destinations on earth.

With each one, a child radiates joy. By Christmas day, thousands of children across the Caribbean will have opened a total of 45,000 toys, thanks to the Sandals Foundation and toy industry partners: Spin Master, Jazwares, and The Toy Foundation™. The toys find their way to children in the mountains of Jamaica, across the valleys of St. Lucia, and into small communities miles away from the nearest Sandals and Beaches in Curaçao, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, St. Vincent, Turks and Caicos, and The Bahamas. Over the years, partners like these have helped the Sandals Foundation share more than 170,000 toys to children in the Caribbean each holiday season. These gifts arrive as extra-special deliveries—bringing food, full-scale parties, and even Sesame Street characters along with them.

“The holidays are about hope,” says Heidi Clarke, Executive Director of the Jamaica-based Sandals Foundation. “In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, it’s especially important this year to remind the people in our island that we’re with them always.”

The Sandals Foundation’s commitment to education, the environment, and opportunity is widely known throughout the Caribbean. Still, a new toy in the littlest hands will spark the same mystery we all once considered about a toy that appeared out of nowhere: How did it get here?

The journey started months earlier at the Sandals version of The North Pole, Miami, where helpful “elves” from the Sandals Foundation and its newest toy partner, Spin Master, welcomed airborne sleds and trucks filled with puzzles, LEGO® sets, figurines, kinetic sand kits, plush toys, Rubik’s Cubes, and creativity-inspiring games.

“When a child receives a new toy, it’s more than something to play with,” says Pamela Mastrota, Executive Director of The Toy Foundation. “It’s a moment of comfort, connection, and the reassurance that they are cared for.”

Comfort. Connection. Care. This begins to sound very … Caribbean.

Tammy Smitham, Vice President of Communications and Corporate Citizenship for Spin Master puts it this way: “We’re excited to partner with the Sandals Foundation so we can give children the magic of play across the islands.”

Turns out, these toy benefactors share an important trait with Sandals.

“They’re selfless,” says Patrice Gilpin of the Sandals Foundation. “These partners have shown us through action that their hearts for uplifting others align with ours.”

They all become willing Sandals Clauses. Brand-new toys that could be sold to stores are instead directed to the Sandals Foundation. The partners expect nothing in return for their generosity, not even a plate of cookies or a glass of milk.

After the toys arrive in Miami, volunteers organize them for their next rides to the islands and on to Sandals and Beaches. It’s the most exciting time of the year for resort team members who are eager to distribute toys.

“This is our community, our family,” says Ian Spencer, a Sandals Foundation ambassador in Montego Bay. “We know the situations in these communities first-hand, and so we know how a specific toy at Christmas will impact a child.”

At the resorts, Sandals and Beaches elves (team members) wrap the toys with holiday colors and a special knot synonymous with the resorts: Love.

Addtionally, guests and families staying at Beaches are invited to put an extra finshing touch on the toys by writing personal notes during the resort’s weekly festive parties:

“Merry Christmas to a superstar.”
“Keep sparkling and shining.”
“Be-you-tiful.”

The toy distribution is not a routine give-and-go.

This is family. A gift from the Sandals Foundation is part of a genuine relationship. The toys are centerpieces of distribution parties and community events with music, games, food, and pure joy, a true holiday get-together. The mood lives beyond the holidays and into the entire year.

Guests at Sandals and Beaches know the mood very well.

The events are reminiscent of how Sandals founder Gordon “Butch” Stewart brought joy and hope to communities across the region, beginning a tradition of giving more than 40 years ago that continues today at every Sandals and Beaches Resort.As a fifth-generation Jamaican, he knew the importance of gathering, especially during the holidays. It inspired kinship and goodwill. Those events would become early stepping stones to the Sandals Foundation’s toy drives because nothing could be more empowering to a child than holding a gift from some distant place, the answer to an unspoken wish:

“Yes, you are seen. You are valued. And you are loved.”