A heartwarming story of a couple businesses that focus on charities that are near and dear to their heart and do their best to help.
The concept of giving back has always been important to the physicians and staff at Midwest ENT & Allergy and for the last five years, “giving back” has included a major toy drive at Christmas for The Banquet and a blood drive in the summer for the Sioux Falls Community Blood Bank.
Midwest ENT & Allergy was looking for a way to give back to the awesome community of Sioux Falls. They had a conversation with their next-door neighbor, Sioux Falls Family Vision, who was also looking for a way to give back. So the two businesses decided to come together to serve the community in a fun and creative way!
Serving children is an important entity for Midwest ENT & Allergy and Sioux Falls Family Vision, so they decided to host a major toy drive to benefit The Banquet in Sioux Falls and challenge other businesses in the community to help as well! From there, the #EyesEarsToyChallenge was born and was soon in full swing!
“Facebook and social media were used to challenge other businesses to donate, similar to the ALS Water Bucket Facebook challenge,” says Lisa Bendt, Midwest ENT & Allergy Practice Administrator. The “challenge” garnered interest from other businesses. Lots of interest.
“We would issue a challenge to a Sioux Falls business on Facebook and they could bring their toys to us, post it with a photo on Facebook, and then challenge another business to do the same! It was a fun way to work together with so many businesses,” Bendt says. Boxes upon boxes of toys were collected, and then given out at The Banquet by the staff and physicians of the two clinics the week of Christmas. They often had enough toys left over to bring to other local SF charities that serve children as well!
“The idea was to get as many toys as possible to kids in need,” says Dr. Peter Kasznica. “Our thought was ‘we can do this together.’ Along with SF Family Vision, Midwest ENT & Allergy created this giant toy drive collecting dolls, books, teddy bears, etc. and then delivering them to The Banquet. This year marked their 5th annual Eyes & Ears Toy Challenge! It has evolved from a challenge of businesses to including anyone who wants to donate! Individuals, businesses, anyone who wants to bless the children is welcome to join them.
“The kids are always so happy to get a toy and the parents are so grateful. For some children, it is the only toy they receive for Christmas,” Bendt says. “It is a meaningful event for all of us at Midwest ENT & Allergy that perfectly matches our mission of serving children and adults.”
The idea of the toy challenge was inspired by another successful event they had teamed up with Sioux Falls Family Vision on. A huge community blood drive!
“We also have a yearly blood drive competition with SF Family Vision. In August, the SF Community Blood Bank Blood-Mobiles come to our parking lot. And because it is so visible to traffic on 57th Street, more donors show up. Most of the staff at the two clinics donate as well. “There were 65 total units collected last year alone, which helped 195 local patients and their families. This was especially helpful during Covid as blood supplies have been low,” Says Bendt.
For the physicians and staff at Midwest ENT & Allergy, giving back is very important. “For us it means reaching out to the community, providing help where it is needed, and finding creative ways to make it all possible,” says Dr. Kasznica (or Dr. K, as his patients call him). “We feel good when we can help. The Sioux Falls community has been so good to us and this is our way of giving back.”
If you would like to be involved in the next blood drive or toy challenge from the helpful gang along 57th street, follow their Facebook pages for frequent event updates!
By Virginia Olson - Sioux Falls Woman Magazine (Feb - March 2022 issue)