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Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive - at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities that have with communities that need.

The Cradles to Crayons story began in December 2000, during the Christmas vacation, when Lynn Margherio—a Boston-based business and public-policy consultant who had recently spent several years in Washington working with the Clinton administration—was visiting the homes of her brother and sister in Michigan.

One morning, she was helping a young niece get dressed. As she dug through a dresser drawer to find just the right outfit, she saw some tops and bottoms with price tags still on them. There was the never-worn green top—destined to remain folded forever in the drawer because it wasn't pink—and a pair of size 2T pants that reflected her niece's fashion sense (pink), but already were a size too small.

Later on that same trip, she stopped at her brother's house, where she got involved with an arts-and-crafts project with another niece and nephew in their playroom. But to get to the table with the glitter, stickers and markers, she had to step over piles of toy trucks, puzzles, and games, and navigate around a plastic kitchen set, an air hockey table, and a train table. (“It looks like our own personal Toys R Us,” she said to herself.) She also noted that despite the profusion of stuff, her niece and nephew tended to gravitate toward one or two favorite toys. The rest were more or less ignored. Later, she saw several unopened presents wind up on the top shelf of a closet.

An idea came to her: What if all of these like-new or never-used children's things could find their way into the homes of other boys and girls—kids who really needed them?Back home in Boston, she began taking steps to make that happen. She visited shelters and health centers, asking if they had the resources to help families meet basic needs like clothing. Consistently, the answer was no. Next, she started calling schools and community groups to see if they would be willing collect children's goods. The reaction was almost uniformly positive. So Margherio commandeered some extra office space at the consulting firm where she was a partner, lined the space with shelving and plastic bins from Home Depot, and started going from school to school in a rented truck to collect other people's stuff.

This ad hoc system, mostly invented in real time, slowly gained momentum, and—in 2002—was formally launched as Cradles to Crayons.

A highlight in our recent history came in 2005, when former President Bill Clinton visited the Boston warehouse. In his remarks, Clinton stressed the importance and power of citizen action, calling it “the great hope for our country and the world in the 21st century.”

Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive - at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities thathave with communities that need.

Cradles to Crayons fills a unique niche within the non-profit sector. We collaborate with a network of more than 300 social service agencies such as Horizons for Homeless Children, the MSPCC, Bay Cove Human Services, and local Boys & Girls Clubs to identify and reach the children who need our help the most.  Through our online ordering system our registered partners can place orders for KidPacks based on a child’s size, age, gender, interests, and unique situation.  Our volunteers work to fill these orders, which are then picked up by the requesting partners and brought directly to the children and their families.

This collaborative model allows C2C to ensure that the children we serve are those most in need in an efficient and effective manner. C2C enables our social service partners to build stronger relationships with the families they serve while focusing their time on their own service delivery rather than spending time seeking basic items for their clients. In a 2010 survey of our distribution partner network, more than 77% of C2C’s partners said that receiving goods from C2C is critical to developing strong client relationships and/or introducing clients to programs. In this way, not only are we meeting the needs of local children, but we are also improving service delivery across the social service sector.

One social service partner tells us of a family they serve: “Lily’s mother cried when she saw the beautiful and warm winter jacket that was in her pack.  She told me that Lily only had a ripped coat for the year and there was no money for a new one. Lily draws so much attention to herself with her behaviors (she is autistic) and she always worried that people would think she wasn't taking care of her child because of the way Lily was dressed.  This coat and clothing made all the difference to this struggling family.  It was one less thing to worry about.” Lily’s mother was able to connect with one of our social service agency partners, who placed an order for the basic things that her family needed.

C2C relies on the collection of children’s products, and many of our most successful collection drives are organized by teenagers and young people.  The majority of our products are new and gently used items donated by families and individuals. In communities across the state, there is an abundance of like-new clothing, books, toys, and other essentials that can have a tremendous impact on the life of an underprivileged child. Youth can help to facilitate community-based product drives in schools, temples, and even across an entire town. These drives provide an opportunity for families and communities of all sizes to come together to share their time and treasures. Collection drives can take a variety of forms or themes and serve as an easy but tangible way to give locally.