It’s that time of year again, geeks! Last year’s Twin Cities Geek Holiday Toy & Book Drive was a huge success—we more than doubled the goal we’d set for ourselves by collecting over 3,000 donations of games, toys, books, and other items for deserving recipients! This year, with even more great donation locations on board, we’re hoping to do even better. As has been the case the past two years, items donated will go to two very worthy local organizations: Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Women’s Prison Book Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Click here for more information about what those organizations do.)
From November 18 through December 13, please bring new and gently used toys and books to our 2017 Twin Cities Geek Holiday Toy & Book Drive donation-box locations around the metro! We’d love to share your giving with the world, so when you make your donation, snap a selfie and post it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with our official hashtag:
#GiveTCG
What Is Needed
Gifts for Kids & Teens
Hallie Q. Brown Community Center is collecting new and gently used toys to distribute during the holidays to St. Paul families in need through Hallie’s Toy Shop. Something as simple as your old Charlie-in-the-Box can bring a smile to a young person who has never had their own. There is a great need for items that will appeal to teenagers, so please consider donating some cool stuff for teens!
Please donate:
- New toys (for kids of all ages)
- Gently used toys (must include all the pieces)
- Electronics (video-game systems, MP3 players, e-readers, tablets, etc.)
- Children’s and YA books (hardcover or softcover)
- Games and puzzles
- New or used CDs and DVDs
- New or used video games
- Art and craft supplies
- Makeup, fashion jewelry, and accessories that would appeal to teenagers
Books for Adults
The Women’s Prison Book Project is collecting new and gently used paperback books of all kinds. The organization sends three paperback books per prisoner per month to cis- and transgender women and genderqueer persons in women’s prisons across the United States who write to request either specific titles or authors or just genres they enjoy.
Please donate:
- Craft books (not patterns)
- Dictionaries
- Fiction and nonfiction by African American writers
- Contemporary books in Spanish
- LGBTQ+ books
- True-crime books
- Vampire books
- Women’s-health books
- Books about family
- Self-help books
- Books on recovery from chemical dependency
- Pagan, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious, nonfiction, and fiction texts
- Any other good-condition paperback books you would like to give!
Where You Can Donate
Geek-friendly businesses of the Twin Cities metro have really answered the call this year, and we have a grand total of 40 different locations hosting donation boxes for the 2017 Twin Cities Geek Holiday Toy & Book Drive, including gaming stores, toy stores, comic stores, music stores, art and craft supply stores, and even a store that sells fancy soda pop! Virtually all of them are locally owned small businesses or community organizations, so pick the location most convenient for you to donate, and take some time to check out the spaces while you’re there—it’s a perfect opportunity learn more about your community, not to mention do your holiday shopping!
Minneapolis
Comic Book College
4632 Nicollet Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55419
(612) 822-2309
Map Link
Dreamers Vault Games
4701 Hiawatha Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55406
(612) 724-4543
Map Link
Electric Fetus
2000 4th Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-9300
Map Link
Fifth Element
2411 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55405
(612) 377-0044
Map Link
Geek Partnership Society
Note: Open during all meetings and events on their calendar.
1121 NE Jackson St. #106
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 424-2477
Map Link
GLITCH
1829 Riverside Ave. #200
Minneapolis, MN 55454
(320) 321-9361
Map Link
Heroic Goods and Games
3456 Minnehaha Ave.
Minneapolis MN 55406
(612) 200-9354
Map Link
Highlander Games
3952 Central Ave. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55
(612) 479-0870
Map Link
Knit & Bolt
2833 Johnson St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
(612) 788-1180
Map Link
Mead Hall Games & Comics
1425 LaSalle Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 315-3945
Map Link
Midwest Makeup Supply
617 W Lake St.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 822-2150
Map Link
Tower Games
3920 Nicollet Ave #150
Minneapolis, MN 55409
(612) 823-4477
Map Link
Universe Games and Steamship Coffee and Tea
711 W Lake St.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 844-1011
Map Link
St. Paul
The Gaming Goat
1326 Grand Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 690-4628
Map Link
Mischief Toy Store
818 Grand Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 493-3307
Map Link
Source Comics and Games
2057 Snelling Ave. N
Roseville, MN 55113
(651) 645-0386
Map Link
Wet Paint
1684 Grand Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 698-6431
Map Link
North Metro
Blue Sun Soda Shop
1625 County Hwy. 10, Suite D
Spring Lake Park, MN 55432
(763) 432-0704
Map Link
Fantasy Flight Games Center
1975 County Road B2 W
Roseville, MN 55113
(651) 379-3801
Map Link
The Gamers Den
140 Buchanan St. N #142
Cambridge, MN 55008
(763) 689-5370
Map Link
Hi-Score Video Games
McKnight 36 Plaza
2130 11th Ave. East
North Saint Paul, MN 55109
(651) 777-3011
Map Link
Tomodachi
156 Rosedale Center
Roseville, MN 55113
(651) 631-1777
Map Link
Village Games (Dreamers Vault Games Champlin)
11591 Theatre Dr. N
Champlin, MN 55316
(763) 506-0303
Map Link
South Metro
Captain Jack’s Comics
9060 Lyndale Ave S
Bloomington, MN 55420
(952) 456-6071
Map Link
Dreamers Vault Games
14332 Burnhaven Dr.
Burnsville, MN 55306
(952) 895-1989
Map Link
Eagle Anime
Mall of America
60 E Broadway N365
Bloomington, MN 55425
(952) 854-1670
Map Link
The Gaming Goat
10956 Diffley Road, Suite F
Eagan, MN 55123
(651) 797-2670
Map Link
Hot Comics & Collectibles
224 Broadway St. S
Jordan, MN 55352
(952) 492-7870
Map Link
Hot Comics and Collectibles
6609 Nicollet Ave.
Richfield, MN 55423
(612) 798-3936
Map Link
Issues Needed Comics
15465 Cedar Ave. S #160
Apple Valley, MN 55124
(952) 683-9339
Map Link
Level Up Games
1004 Diffley Road, Suite 500
Eagan, MN 55123
(651) 454-6018
Map Link
Mind’s Eye Comics
1565 Cliff Road #2
Eagan, MN 55122
(651) 683-0085
Map Link
East Metro
The Gaming Goat
783 Radio Dr. #107
Woodbury, MN 55125
(651) 493-2736
Map Link
Level Up Games
207 13th Ave. S
South St. Paul, MN 55075
(651) 493-9176
Map Link
Toyriffic
2950 White Bear Ave.
Maplewood, MN 55109
(651) 748-9455
Map Link
West Metro
Dreamers Vault Games
3015 Utah Ave. S
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
(952) 938-8163
Map Link
Hot Comics and Collectibles
3532 Winnetka Ave. N
New Hope, MN 55427
(763) 593-1223
Map Link
Lodestone Coffee and Games
10982 Cedar Lake Road
Minnetonka, MN 55305
(952) 657-5226
Map Link
Special Events
Brickmania Toyworks
1620 Central Ave. NE #170
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 545-5263
Map Link
There will be a donation box available at the Brickmania Toyworks LEGO Fan Expo on the following dates:
Saturday, November 25, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 26, noon–2:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 2, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 3, noon–2:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 9, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 10, noon–2:00 p.m.
Advance online tickets are $8.00 per person (or free for age 4 and under!). Tickets at the door will be $10.00 if space is available.
The Parkway Theater
4814 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55417
(612) 822-2104
Map Link
Bring your donations to this screening event at the Parkway Theater to get free admission!
Sunday, November 26: Kaiju Super Show
Bring your donations to these screening events at the Parkway Theater to get free popcorn!
Thursday, November 30: Trailer Apocalypse 35mm screening (admission $8)
Saturday, December 9: Alien (1979) 35mm screening (admission $10)
Do you have a special event where you would like to help collect donations for the 2017 Twin Cities Geek Holiday Toy & Book Drive? Contact us and let us know!
Virtual Donations
If you can’t make it to a physical donation box, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center has provided us with an Amazon wishlist. Click here to view it. Buy a gift and ship it straight there!
You can also make monetary donations to Hallie Q. Brown Community Center on their website, and to the Women’s Prison Book Project on their website.
About the Organizations
Here is some information about the two awesome organizations that the Twin Cities Geek Toy & Book Drive will benefit.
Hallie Q. Brown Community Center
Serving the Summit-University neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center Inc. is a private, nonprofit social-service agency whose mission is to improve the quality of life in our community by providing access to critical human services, fostering and promoting personal growth, and developing community leadership.
Although Hallie Q. Brown began as a settlement house for African Americans denied services from other agencies, they long ago opened the center’s services to all people. Historically, the center has been mixed racially and economically. Approximately one-third of St. Paul’s people of color live in the Summit-University area and nearly 50 percent of the population are minority residents. The area continues to evolve demographically, and Hallie Q. Brown provides a wide range of services designed to reflect the character of the Summit-University community as a whole. The holiday toy drive is part of a larger Hallie Q. Brown effort to help meet the basic needs of St. Paul residents.
You can also drop toy donations off directly at the community center:
Hallie Q. Brown Community Center
270 N. Kent Street
Saint Paul, MN 55102
Map Link
Please check out more of the great work Hallie Q. Brown is doing at the center’s website, www.hallieqbrown.org.
Women’s Prison Book Project
The Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) is currently located at Boneshaker Books in Minneapolis’s Seward neighborhood. Since 1994, it has provided cisgender and transgender women in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics, from law and education (dictionaries, GED, etc.) to fiction, politics, history, and women’s health. WPBP is an all-volunteer, grassroots organization that seeks to build connections with those behind the walls and to educate those of us on the outside about the realities of prison and the justice system.
Of the more than two million people confined in US prisons and jails, over 150,000 are women. Eighty percent of these women are imprisoned for nonviolent crimes. Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the vast majority were convicted for defending themselves or their children from abuse. More than half of all women in prison are women of color, and two-thirds of women in prison have at least one child under age 18. Most of these mothers had primary custody of their children before going to prison.
These facts mean that women in prison have specific needs for particular kinds of information: reading material on families, children, women’s self-help, women’s health, and legal aid pertaining to women who fight back against their abusers. Many lesbian, bisexual, and transgender prisoners have trouble obtaining information that is relevant to their lives. WPBP works to support prisoners and, through that solidarity, works to empower prisoners themselves and build connections through prison walls.
You can also drop book donations off directly at Boneshaker Books:
Boneshaker Books
2002 23rd Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Map Link
Please check out more about the Women’s Prison Book Project at www.wpbp.org.
Go Forth and Donate!
Tell your friends, stop by one of the donation-box locations, donate some toys and books, and post about your donations using #GiveTCG! Please thank the generous local businesses hosting donation boxes for us. Check out their stores, and support local business by doing some holiday shopping there. Together we can make others’ lives a little brighter this holiday season.
Do you use Facebook? Click here for the Facebook event, and please invite your friends!
