Golden Twin Toy Drive

Twin sisters Rachel and Faith Knopps of Spring Valley project a generosity inspiring others.  By gathering, then delivering toys, they have created a nonprofit dedicated to bringing joy into the lives of children who are hospitalized.

Growing up in southwestern Minnesota with a brother who frequently was a patient at Gillette Children’s Hospital in Saint Paul has influenced the Knopps to consider reaching out to youngsters facing medical difficulties.  “We see what a simple toy can do and how much joy it will bring to the kids, so in 2024 we decided to purchase toys and accept donations of toys to give to them,” commented Rachel.

Her sister, Faith adds, “We decided that instead of having a birthday party for the dogs, we could do a toy drive and give toys to the kids they visited and Rachel thought it was a good idea. We ran with it and it just blew up!”

It is interesting that not only are Rachel and Faith twins, but their Golden Labradors are litter mates!  The story of how they came together is interesting.  “Dakota, our dog for 13 years passed away and it was a difficult time for us. Mark Shepardson, who I worked with while I was building the jail over in Winona in 2022 offered me a puppy that was just born on September 11,” said Rachel.  “Mark could tell I just needed something to help get me through this rough patch I was having, so he gave me Ariel.  I took her home to surprise Faith.  When I  sent him a video of me surprising Faith with the puppy, he said, ‘You’re a twin?’  And I replied that I was, so he told me I needed Rosie and that we needed both of these puppies because we couldn’t split the twins up and now we have two puppies!” 

Rachel and Faith witnessed the positive response Ariel and Rosie brought to their brother Keith, who lives with cerebral palsy (CP is a group of disorders that affect movement, muscle tone, and coordination due to damage to the developing brain) and wondered if their dogs could help others in similar ways.  Faith came up with the idea that therapy work might be a perfect way to “give back” for their “girls” and so Ariel and Rosie joined the Caring Canines of Mayo Clinic. Today, Faith and Ariel visit the children’s areas while Rachel and Rosie head over to the long-term elderly care unit.  “We take a wagon full of goodies to them each year, because we feel it’s important to show our support for the elderly people.” said Rachel.  

Every year the sisters do a big toy drive for the dogs’ birthday and also make a donation to an animal shelter at Christmas time as a little present from the people they visit.  Rachel commented “The toys come from donations from our Amazon wish list where people can purchase items and the toys will be shipped straight to us, or we receive cash or Venmo donations which we use to fill in all the extra age gaps we need to fill from stores.”

Faith continued, “We store the toys in our basement storage room year-round depending on when we get donations.  Sometimes we find a really good deal on a toy we just can’t pass up so we buy and store them.  July and August are the busy months of the year for us and our garage gets taken over by toys. It is a wonderful feeling knowing where they are going and how much joy these toys will bring!”

Moving the gifts from their garage can be an enormous task and the sisters are grateful for the people who have reached out to them to assist them.  “This year the bank in Spring Valley, Alerus, let us use their trailer to haul all the toys to the hospital,” mentioned Rachel.

Faith explained, “At the hospital we have a little birthday party for the dogs and the kids get to say ‘Hi!’ to the dogs and sing them Happy Birthday as well as each child gets to choose a couple toys and enjoy a cupcake and a juice box.” 

Rachel continued, “We collected around $6,000 worth of toys and delivered all of them that day. The kids just loved it! And for us it’s fun watching them trying to figure out just what toy they want, especially the way they always have to look at everything trying to find the best toy they can find.  It’s also great to see how their parents are always very thankful for what we do.”

The Knopps twins, Rachel and Faith, believe it is important to “spread kindness because you never know when someone needs it and small acts of kindness can go a long way, plus dogs can help heal the soul.”  They invite the Fillmore County Journal readers to join with them in spreading joy by joining  “Golden Twin Toy Drive,”  a state and federal non-profit, by contacting them at Goldentwintoydrive@gmail.com.