Bringing joy and healing to hospitalized children.

Alice in Toyland is a Michigan-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to bringing joy, comfort, and a sense of normal childhood to hospitalized children and their families. Through close partnerships with Child Life teams at children's hospitals, we deliver toys, games, crafts, and comfort items free of charge to children facing inpatient stays, long treatments, and extended time away from home. Every gift is designed to spark play, ease anxiety, and help a child feel like a child again, even inside a hospital room.

Our work is for the children who need it most: kids enduring overnight hospital stays, inpatient birthdays, and the emotional weight of serious illness, along with the families and caregivers walking beside them. We believe play is not a luxury but part of healing, and that no child should face the hospital without something to hold, to build, to color, or to celebrate with.

Alice in Toyland is built and run by a small, dedicated team of volunteers and family members who have lived this experience firsthand. Our story began in 2018, when our daughter Alice was diagnosed with an advanced cancer and rushed to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. The outpouring of love and toys we received during that first long stay showed us exactly what a difference a little joy can make, and we have been paying that forward to other hospitalized children ever since.