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It was the night before his first day of second grade in August 2016 when 7-year-old Isaac Garza began to feel sick.

What doctors initially thought to be strep throat quickly became more severe, and by Wednesday night Isaac was laying in an intensive care unit with a high fever and a lot of pain.

The following Monday things took a turn for the worse. Isaac had gone into cardiac arrest twice that day, causing his heart to stop.

Luckily through CPR nurses were able to bring Isaac back each time.

It was then that Isaac was transported to a San Antonio children’s hospital where he was diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease, a condition that affects blood flow to the heart due to inflammation of the blood vessels.

He remained at the San Antonio facility until September of that year.

During his stay Isaac, who made a full recovery, made friends with some of the other children on his floor.

Among those friends was a boy named Emmanuel, a foster child who Laura Gomez, Isaac’s mom, described as the most charming and optimistic fifth grader she’d ever met.

“It was always a treat to have him visit Isaac because he was just such a pleasant kid,” Laura said. “He was one of those kids that would start talking to you and you were just listening. You were engaged. He would talk about things he read, stuff he saw.”

She recalled the boys meeting up in the playroom to play with the toys gifted to them by “Child Life,” such as Hot Wheels and Legos.

Now 16-years-old, Isaac today recalls receiving a toy each day that helped ease the stress of staying in the hospital

“It distracted me and made me happy, and it really just helped me get over my time there,” Isaac said.

For Laura, seeing her son smile from just receiving a toy after everything he’d been through meant the world to her. Even now when she thinks back on that time it makes her emotional to know that strangers took the time to donate toys to help bring joy to children who are in the hospital.

“As a mom, it’s been 10 years and I still cry, to me it meant the world,” Laura said with a shaky voice. “It would brighten his day.”

Isaac still has the first toy he ever received, a duck plushy he cleverly named “Ducky,” who sits on his night stand.

It was those acts of kindness that made Isaac want to bring a toy to his friend Emmanuel, but not just any toy, he wanted to bring him a toy corvette and a train set.

Laura and her husband agreed to help him but then Isaac told them he felt that if they were taking Emmanuel toys it would only be fair if they also brought toys for all the kids on their floor.

After agreeing to that too, Isaac then added that it still wouldn’t be fair, so instead he asked his parents if they could help him bring toys to all the kids in the hospital, which had about 14 floors.

“… That’s a big ask but how could we tell him no,” Laura said with a chuckle, adding that they immediately reached out to their family to help them collect toys for these children. “He was just being considerate.”

Thus marked the beginning of Isaac’s Angels Toy Drive.

With about seven donation boxes spread around the community, with one at UTRGV and another at Shary Elementary, the family was able to collect around 800 toys that year.

Although it turned out to be a lot of work, Laura knew all that effort had been worth it after seeing the joy it brought each child.

She recalled the day Isaac and his younger brother Jacob hand-delivered the toys to Emmanuel, who had been on the eighth floor at the time doing his physical therapy.

“That little boy’s face lit up the room,” Laura said. “I was crying and crying. I was a mess, I grabbed my husband’s hand and I said, ‘We’re going to do this. We’re going to do this for as long as Isaac wants to do this.’

“That moment was just magic. It was beautiful.”

Unfortunately a year after they had met Emmanuel, he died due to his various medical conditions.

When they drove up to San Antonio again the family visited his grave and left him some Hot Wheels toys.

Now Isaac and his family continue to host a toy drive every year as both a way to honor his friend and help bring a little bit of Christmas joy to children in the hospital.

Although their first toy drive was in San Antonio the family now continues the effort in their hometown at South Texas Health System Children’s in Edinburg.

This year Isaac is hosting his 10th annual toy drive with about 20 donation sites across the Rio Grande Valley.

In 2024, Isaac and his family collected 1,600 toys. This year he hopes to beat that record by collecting 2,000 toys.

The toy drive is being held until Dec. 19.

For more information about the toy drive and where to drop off donations visit Isaac’s Angels Toy Drive page on Facebook.

The post The Valley’s Isaac Garza lights up kids’ faces with his toy drives. Here’s why he does it appeared first on MyRGV.com.