Donations Still Welcome for Matthew’s Wish

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

December 8th, 2025

RICHMOND – Members of the Richmond Police Department have once again teamed up with Matthew’s Wish to collect toys for RICAN, (Rhode Island Center Assisting Those in Need.)

“This is a collective effort to spread a little joy and hope in the lives of children and their families and let them know that their police department and community care about them,” the Richmond police announcement states.

The annual Stuff-a-Cruiser event will take place at Chariho Plaza on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A “toy convoy” of fire trucks will then bring the toys to RICAN. New, unwrapped toys can be donated at the Ocean State Job Lot in Wyoming.

This is the ninth year the event has taken place.

“We started in 2016 with our stuff-a-cruiser drive, and we started it at the Walmart in Westerly, before we were able to identify a community partner who was willing to partner up with us here in town,” said Richmond Police Chief Elwood Johnson.  “I think that started in 2017 at Ocean State Job Lot.”

The donated toys are stuffed into police cruisers. When those  vehicles are filled, they are replaced with empty cruisers.

“We just keep running them through,” Johnson said. “We have volunteer officers that’ll be there in uniform, and then we have officers that will cycle those cars to and from RICAN. So, in other words, we’ll fill a cruiser, we’ll fill another cruiser, we’ll run those to RICAN, we’ll bring them back empty, and we’ll just keep doing it until all the toys are either transported to RICAN, or ready to jump in Matthew’s Toy Convoy to RICAN to deliver all the toys.”

Toys are also being collected at other locations, such as the Hopkinton police station.

“Hopkinton PD has a box at their station. They’ll bring their items in a cruiser to be delivered to RICAN,” Johnson said. “Because of the volume of toys exceeding a few hundred, we’re trying to assist RICAN, because they have an organizational intake system down there, and so many volunteers. They’re trying to put the gifts in a location where they’re age-appropriate categories, and also, to make room for the convoy when it comes down, so they’re not staged out to the street. They try to make room for the incoming delivery.”

Matthew’s Wish, a 501 ( c) (3) non-profit organization, was started in 2016 by Mathew Thayer, a resident of Richmond with Down Syndrome who wanted to hold a toy drive for children.

Both community participation, and the number of toy donations, have grown every year.

“We’re hoping that we’ll always be able to make an adjustment and accommodate,” Johnson said.

Additional information can be found on the police department’s Facebook page.