When we bring “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl Week” on the road every February, these are exactly the kinds of stories we seek to tell so you’ll get involved. Meet Robin Emrick, who tells Nestor the incredible story of Ann’s Toy Closet in Essex and holiday joy for children and struggling parents in East Baltimore County.
Nestor Aparicio discusses the community work of Robin Emrick and Ann’s Toy Closet in Essex, which provides toys and essentials to families in need. Robin, whose mother founded the organization, describes its evolution from a clothing giveaway to a program that helps 226 families and 292 children annually. The Toy Closet operates year-round, with donations accepted throughout the year and a major giveaway in December. Robin emphasizes the importance of community support, mentioning a 92-year-old donor who provides refurbished bikes. Nestor highlights the broader community efforts during Charity Week, encouraging listeners to donate and support local initiatives.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Community Week, St John’s Lutheran, Ann’s Toy Closet, Essex, food pantry, toy giveaway, Christmas support, donations, community service, family assistance, crisis calls, local involvement, Maryland lottery, charity events, volunteer opportunities
SPEAKERS
Robin Emrick, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
To welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, A, M, 1570 task, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We are positively here at Costas. I left my drink behind me, but I’m gonna do that. You can see the bar behind us. If you’re here. We’re in not really Sparrows Point. I consider that around the corner. I call this Dundalk down here. It’s all brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. I swear I have some scratch offs here on my magic eight ball. We are doing a cup of soup or bowl. This is our Charity Week, community week, getting out in the community a little bit. It’s early in the week here. We will be getting all over town. Bill be at Cocos on Wednesday, we’re going to be Thursday at State Fair in Catonsville, and on Friday, Cooper’s north, and, of course, on Tuesday at fade Lee’s downtown, I will have magic eight ball scratch offs in the Maryland lottery for the lucky. And I’m feeling lucky here 33 years into this, being able to bring folks back. Last year, I had some folks from Essex, and I know it’s a long way to come across the bridge to Dundalk from Essex, you know, but the folks at St John’s Lutheran Church are doing great work over in Essex. And I worked last year with a food pantry and food service group there. This year we’re gonna talk about Anne’s toy closet. Robin Emeric is here. She reached me on Facebook. You Essex folks stick together down there, and it’s good community. And had a beautiful story last year about feeding people and people getting back to work and getting back helping people in the community move from struggling to sustainable on their own. And I think that’s for everybody. Robin, a pleasure to have you here. How are you? I’m well, thank you. Well, I know you’re Costas eater because I saw you in over there eating. So you’re you Nestor. We are. Where are you from? Originally, actually
Robin Emrick 01:44
live in Essex. Have lived in Essex my whole life, your
Nestor Aparicio 01:46
whole life. All right, so my dad came from Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1943 to work at Martin Marietta, Mary, my mom at Mount Carmel in 1945 summer 45 they lived in Mars estates, which is now redone at Jose anands corner, and they moved to Taylor avenue for a number of years in the late 40s, when after they got married and they bought their first Home for $5,100 in on Bank Street and Colgate, and my dad got a job at Westinghouse and then wound up at the point in the 60s, and did 30 years or so Essex when I was a little boy. People would ask me, at Memorial Stadium in the 70s, where are you from? And I would say, Essex. People shocked that I consider Dundalk my home, but Dundalk and Essex were always sort of the same kind of place, East Point mall. I don’t know that East Point mall was considered Essex at one point, Highland town, given a 21224, zip code. So Essex, and don’t we’re the same thing, even though we fight over to, you know, the bridge well, and the plant itself, you know, but the odors on both sides, we take it equally. Tell everybody where St John’s Lutheran churches, and your involvement there? Sure.
Robin Emrick 03:02
St John’s Lutheran is at 518 Franklin Avenue. It is right two streets off of the main Eastern Boulevard. We’ve been there. We basically, we are very proud. We just celebrated 120 years. Wow. And that was just a few years ago, and we are a mission driven organization, and we do a lot of community service work.
Nestor Aparicio 03:28
Well, let’s go through it. Let’s talk soup to nuts. You are an Essex person. You look to be about my age, so you’ve been doing this a couple of years down there with a church under 20 years. Give me the seed of your involvement, not just with the church and your beliefs, but just in giving back. I went to Our Lady of Fatima. I was confirmed, you know, alter boy, all of that. There were always things for the old folks going on in the hall. In the back, there’s a bingo night. There was, this was that I didn’t notice the the poverty in my own community as a child. You’re kind of hits. It’s hidden. For many years, a shameful, you know, position to be in to ask for help. But I think we all saw the plant closed down here, and we all know that there are challenges in our community. I don’t know at what point you became aware enough to roll your sleeves up and do something about it. Robin, it’s been,
Robin Emrick 04:19
it’s been like that for quite a while. Now, I can tell you, if my mom was still alive, she would just basically die, if I mentioned but we grew up poor. Our family of five, my mom had five children. She raised us by herself and she but we were the richest people in the neighborhood. You know, we had everybody wanted to be at our house. Everybody, you know, my mom was a fantastic cook, Baker, and all the kids just always wanted to be. Where did you grow up? In the Essex area, right, right in the terrace, Western terrace, on Crafton road. We moved when we were I was in sixth grade when we. Moved to Marlin Avenue, okay? And it was devastating for the neighborhood when we moved, because we just moved, my mom said we’re moving, and we moved, and it was a blessing for us. We got a nice, big single home that my mom bought. Single mom worked all five of us, all right, yep, all five. So you want
Nestor Aparicio 05:19
to Kenwood side of Marlin, or on the Kenworth side, okay? Or, as I would say, the Pizza John side would be the other side. So, because I know the difference. But, you know, I grew up, you know, my my uncle owned a salon, a lady salon, in the early 70s, what is now to 711 at Marlin and Eastern Avenue. And, you know, I bowl at Middlesex, and it was a library there. My first girlfriend lived on Hamburg and Essex, and we would meet at the at the library there in Middlesex, in the shopping center. I did my skate land. I met every girl at the skate land, and that was on the other side of my eyes, on a Pizza John side, where the a one crab Haven and Al seafood, and all these iconic, I mean, the Thunderbird, right? I mean, you know, these iconic places in Essex, Schultz’s crab house being another one of I think all these places are food, their food, their places I went to eat, and my Roma’s, you know, Italian, I’m mention all these places that were walking distance for you as a girl, and all these places, and I think to myself, there was poverty there, and you got a church up the street. I mean, in the 70s, 80s, give me your your mom left you. This your
Robin Emrick 06:30
charity, correct? So this, we just celebrated our 40th year, and my mom it because my mom was raising five children by herself. My mom basically made a deal with God, if God took care of her and her children, that she would give back, and she began Ann’s toy closet 40 years ago. So your mom
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
is the founder of this correct? See, it takes me 15 minutes to get to the crux of the story. So what it is and your mom and Brooks All right, there you go and toy closets. Let’s go with this. This is good. First of
Robin Emrick 07:05
all, she worked on the railroad. So my mom worked at Bayview hump off of North Point Boulevard, okay? And she was one of the few amount of women on at the railroad then, seven respected, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 07:18
there were a lot of women in the workforce as our My mom was a homemaker, proudly. You know what? I mean? Like there, there were a lot, a lot of ladies in mind. That’s why we all turned out good. We had two parents, and they they loved us, yep.
Robin Emrick 07:30
So she was a single mom, and just did the best. She was wonderful. But mom started this because she wanted to give back. It started as not just a toy giveaway. But it started as a clothing giveaway. People would donate items, household items, toys, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 07:47
clothing. Winter time, gloves and coats are always hand me down, right in our neighborhood.
Robin Emrick 07:51
And she would, every month, she would open up and she would give it all away, any, anybody needed, anything. She would give it to them. So then my mom, sad to say, passed in April of 21 from a brain aneurysm, and I stepped up. I said, you know, I know four years ago, yeah, all right, I knew that. I knew eventually I would take this over. But when that hit, it was hard, and I thought, nope, I’m gonna do this. So the the amazing thing is that you don’t know who’s in need, and a lot of times people are, they don’t want to share that they’re having issues. They don’t want you to know that. You know, I don’t have Christmas for my family, I don’t have money for food, things like that. So my mom developed this whole process where people would come at Christmas, and they used to fill the church like we would have people waiting all day long, just at the chance of getting good used toys and brand new toys to be able to take home to their families. I mean, we’ve had several family members that would come in there and say, you know, without this, I wouldn’t have Christmas. My family wouldn’t have Christmas ever, nothing. And it really, just really hit home with my mom, because so many years she struggled to provide us Christmas. So now this is
Nestor Aparicio 09:14
probably inspired by Toys for Tots and Santa work. Oh yeah, yeah, at that point, right? Let’s have our own Toys for Tots right here in Essex. Do this right in the neighborhood, right? So we’re the kids here, give the kids there, and families given to family. And
Robin Emrick 09:25
then we began to we thought more about it’s not just the mom and dad or the grand moms or whoever, The Guardian as the child. But then we also said, we need to think about allowing children to come and shop for their parents. So now, every year, we are helping. This past year, December, we had our big time giveaway, and we helped 226 families. What do you call that big day? So it’s, it’s just the giveaway day, the giveaway day, the giveaway day, and it. Yes, it’s, this is in December. It’s in December. It’s always the second Saturday of December. And we are we run from 9am till four, about 430 in the afternoon. We have 10 appointments every 15 minutes. And people filter through the church, meaning they shop in the used toy area first, then they go to the new toy area. So but while they’re shopping, their children are in what we call the church parlor, and they’re shopping for their parents, their grandparents. So everything that we have is donated. All of the used toys are donated from great people in the community and different organizations we’ve aligned with, and then we do fundraisers to buy the new toys. So we have different places that we utilize that where we can go and purchase toys deep discounts, so we’re able to give these, these to everything is given away free to families. But it’s this past year. Again, 226 families got Christmas. And then 292 children came through, got to shop for their families. Every child that left our church had a brand new hat, had a brand new scarf, brand new pair of gloves. We always make sure that we do that. And again, this all donated from people. Beautiful community.
Nestor Aparicio 11:24
Anne’s toy closet. Robin Emerg is here. She is from Essex. We let her come into Dundalk. We’re at Costas. It’s all on behalf of friends at the Maryland lottery and wise markets. Big thanks to wise markets. On an annual basis, they feed a lot of people. It’s all for the Maryland Food Bank as well. We’ll be doing this all week telling these amazing stories of community here. I don’t have to sing the Dundalk Hi alma mater here to get this one going. So how can people help? And this is your you. You get going all year long. April and and you must say, at the church, I met the folks, let there is an ongoing effort at this special church in Essex to be doing things to help men pick their lives up. People in the community, feeding community, there’s a lot of things that go on at your church. You’re a once a year, like Super Bowl, right? Kind of, sort of two weeks for Christmas, you do this thing, you, I guess, year long. If it’s look it’s February. You got some toys to give away, you’ll take them now, put it in a closet, we’ll bust them out second week of December, right?
Robin Emrick 12:22
No, that’s not how we know it’s not it because it’s so massive. You have to picture our church is a pretty big church. The used toy area is the entire size of the basement of the church. So when I say we start now, we go through the whole room is cleaned after the giveaway, we then begin to go through all the donations that have already come in. If they have batteries, the batteries are taken teddy
Nestor Aparicio 12:48
bears, anything that’s in your house right now, anything that you want to give to a kid, correct, or a parent, or a parent that a kid can pick out correct, anything correct, bottle of clone you don’t want, but anything you don’t want, ABS, anything in the ass you don’t want, correct. All right, I like that. Toys,
Robin Emrick 13:06
books. We also have. There’s one person I really want to mention. His name is Norm zimsky. This man is 92 years old. He’s aren’t we call him the bike man. He has been getting bikes, and a lot of the bikes that he gets are from the Baltimore County Police Department. When a bike is left on the side of the road, they pick them up. Nobody claims them. Mr. Norm gets those. He refurbs the bikes. We usually get about 120 to 140 bicycles from him every what. And he’s 92 years
Nestor Aparicio 13:37
that’s a lot of bikes. It’s a lot of somebody better step up for that job. He’s 92 when he go, like your mom, we got to figure out somebody to be the bike captain. Yes,
Robin Emrick 13:45
exactly, exactly. But he is such a wonderful man. And he just gives and gives and gives, and he never asked anything in return, nothing.
Nestor Aparicio 13:53
See, I, you know, maybe I should have been from Essex instead of Dundalk. I don’t know. You know, I claimed dundalks Pretty good, though. We’re here at Costas. Robin emmerk is here it is. And toys, toy closet. You can easily find these folks. They are out on Facebook. I found them last year. I’m finding them again this year. They’re at St John’s of Essex. St John’s Lutheran Church of Essex. You can pop it right on up. It’s got a beauty is that the church there’s beautiful stained glass. Look at that beautiful stained glass in that church. There. You can find them at St John’s of essex.org so it has it right there in the name and all sorts of things that you guys are doing here. You got Cub Scout troops going on. You had a dinner fundraiser on the 25th of February from four to seven. So all this information the Bona APA Tito, I can’t even say it. I’m Italian bon appetito, Tuesday, February 25 and four to seven other doing good work over at St John’s Luther church and Ann’s toy cut so your so the church is as big as this room, maybe, like there’s a room bigger
Robin Emrick 14:54
with the toys, much bigger, much bigger than this room, twice the size, twice the
Nestor Aparicio 14:58
size of cost is there? Put. Toys in, and then you just stack them all up, correct? And then in December, it’s boom, boom, and but God, that feels good and keeps you alive. Till December. Don’t give something to look forward to. It’s better Christmas does. We
Robin Emrick 15:12
also every, every now and then when hardships occur in the community, whether families had a fire or they had a devastating loss, people reach out to us, reach out to our church, and we make sure that if the child’s toys were gone, we replace those toys. We make sure that the child has toys, anything that the family needs. Crisis calls
Nestor Aparicio 15:33
Correct. Well, that’s beautiful thing. Tell everybody number. Just go to the website or and so how can they find you personally? Give me an email. Give me a way to find sure
Robin Emrick 15:41
they can actually reach out on my cell. I’m perfectly fine, given that information, my cell is 410-905-2435, they can text me. They can call me. It doesn’t matter.
Nestor Aparicio 15:52
All right, when you’re you’re really local, you know, you don’t even have, like, an Anne’s toy closet. What we gotta I’m gonna get Mike Rosenfeld to figure something mat so people can donate to you and and make good things happen here in the community. Awesome. Well, we still got like 10 months to gather stuff here, right, correct? All right. Somebody’s got to do it. Somebody’s working on bikes. I’m gonna work on books. That’s what I need to do. I work on books. I got Megan McCorkle coming later this week. She has been working with the Enoch Pratt library. She can be doing live Baltimore. So I have book people. You got me all you charity nice people got me thinking about how I can be nicer and what I got laying around that I can say I’m not even using that thing. Let’s get that to somebody that can use it. Right? Oh, correct. Perfect, correct. All right. Robin Emeric is here and toy closet. Her mom was an and they’re down at St John’s Lutheran Church. All were brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery wise Marcus. We’re here at Costas. We call it a cup of soup or bowl. It sort of turned into its own little thing where I’m talking to all kinds of people around the community about sustainability and food, people from other parts of the world stopping by here, and people from Essex making their way into Dundalk. We’re here Costas today will be at fade Lee’s on Tuesday. Well, Wednesday, we’re gonna move the the proceedings from one side of the city. The other will be a Cocos on Wednesday. Thursday will be at State Fair in Catonsville. Friday will be a Cooper’s north all from noon until five, stop by bring some canned goods donate for the Maryland Food Bank and local food pantries, including food pantries like the one they have in Essex and Soup for the Soul that I had here in Dundalk. A little earlier on, we’ll be telling more stories Catonsville community assistants, going to hear from them later on in the week, just a lot of people, a lot of people doing good stuff out in the community. I am Nestor. My thanks to rob and everybody here at Costas. We’re gonna come back. Continue on with more stories of Baltimore glory. We call it a couple Super Bowl week. It’s people helping people, community and charity. Stay with us. You.
