This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver seventh grader is going above and beyond this holiday season to help children in need get toys.

Isaac Nieder, a student at Denver’s Jewish Day School, recently completed a mitzvah project for Jewish Family Service in preparation for his upcoming bar mitzvah in January at Hebrew Educational Alliance. 

Nieder said he chose to collect monetary donations and toys for the Bright Holidays program.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents have lost their jobs and need to provide for their kids. I wanted to collect toys for children so they would have presents that they might not have been able to get for the holidays.” shared Nieder.

According to Nieder’s parents, he emailed many companies and stores to ask for donations or discounts. Mattel offered a discounted rate for JFS to purchase toys as an added bonus to Nieder’s project.

Nieder collected approximately $7,000 worth of toys, including monetary donations that were used to purchase toys for JFS client families.

Nieder and his family dropped off the toy donations at JFS and helped distribute them to families at the food pantry.

Nieder’s advice for other children looking to give back to the community?

“Start as soon as possible so you have time to advertise and figure out all the details.”