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Arizona high school student hosts toy drive for early childhood development program

By
Phoenix
Published August 30, 2026 3:11 PM MST
Published August 30, 2026 3:11 PM MST

The Brief

    • High school student Gabriella Flores is hosting a toy drive to support Chicanos Por La Causa, an early childhood development program she attended at 2 years old.
    • Chicanos Por La Causa has operated for 60 years and serves thousands of children nationally each year.
    • Flores serves as president of her high school's Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica club and organized the drive to collect toys for children of all age groups.

PHOENIX - A local student is giving back to the early childhood development program she attended when she was just 2 years old.

"I believe kids play, it 100% definitely helped me to learn," said Gabriella Flores, a former program participant.

The backstory:

Gabriella Flores is giving back to the program that helped her very early in life. Now in high school, she still remembers her time at CPLC. 

"I remember my friends from the program, Audrey and Manuel, we used to do a lot of social building, so obviously we used to play together, and we played separately. We did a lot of motor skill building, we used to serve each other our foods and a lot of activities and how that tied into the real world," Flores said.

The Program:

Chicanos Por La Causa is an early childhood development program.

"It's been around for 60 years done this for thousands of children nationally, 700,000 children every year, millions of children it works this model works," Andrea Martinez said.

Toy Drive:

Flores is now hosting a toy drive to get donations for the program.

"I want them to feel loved and the care they can play with these toys and toys for any age range. Each family has different needs, so creativity makes up their own story," Flores said. "I think it came from watching kids in my life play. I have four nieces and nephews, and I see how they can get a concept by playing.

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The Impact:

Flores is the president of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica club at her high school, and she is a shining example of the impact CPLC has on kids in the community.

"We have a long-term impact, as you can see with Gabi. These are the kind of kids that come out of our programs. I'm going to be voting for her whatever she wants to run for," Martinez said.

Gabriella to this day, remains very grateful.

"I want to thank all the teachers that helped me along the way, my fourth grade teachers, seventh grade teachers. I thank them so much because they all helped me get to this point where I have the inspiration to do this toy drive," Flores said.

The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Gabriella Flores, Andrea Martinez, and Chicanos Por La Causa.

PhoenixNews