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Mary Didiuk, Ph.D., a medicinal chemist, and Diana Caty, an immigration attorney, have been friends since 2012. The idea for their non-profit came from Mary after conversations between Mary and her mom. With the hope of giving back to their community, Mary and Diana used this idea to co-found Traveling Toys, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit, in March 2019. At first, the emphasis was to support children 1 - 12 years of age, but as the COVID-19 pandemic has had such a challenging effect on teens, they have broadened their focus to include teens 13 - 18 years of age.

 

As they looked for options to make toys available to children, they weighed several alternatives. Diana’s vision that Traveling Toys partner with Connecticut libraries has served as an effective strategy for broadening their reach. This model gives all children and teens in local communities access to toys and games.

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Mary and Diana believe that local libraries are ideal partners. Traveling Toys and Connecticut libraries share a common goal of promoting education for children and teens of diverse backgrounds.