December 18, 2024 NEW YORK – Today, the Coalition for the Homeless along with Arnold NY advertising unveiled a new augmented reality experience, the Children’s Tree, to support the organization’s annual Holiday Toy Drive for homeless children. The website uses augmented reality to place a shimmering tree in your phone camera, allowing you to add an ornament to the world’s largest virtual holiday giving tree. To experience the Children’s Tree for yourself, visit childrenstreenyc.com from your mobile device. The augmented reality experience works both indoors and outdoors. A promotional video for the initiative can be found HERE. “The Children’s Tree is an opportunity to spread holiday joy by giving people a fun and unique way to buy a new toy for a homeless child living in a shelter,” said Sarah Murphy, Chief Development Officer at Coalition for the Homeless. “Our goal is to deliver 10,000 toys to homeless kids this year, and the Children’s Tree is a reminder of that mission – and of the importance of making sure that children without homes get to feel special during the holidays.” Nearly 46,000 children will face the holidays without a home, sleeping in shelters across New York City, and one in eight public school students in our city experienced homelessness during the school year. The Coalition has been distributing holiday toys to kids in shelters for more than 20 years now, and relies on support from the public to do so. For more information, reach out to Coalition for the Homeless at toydrive@cfthomeless.org or call 212-776-2059.
