EAST WENATCHEE — McKenna Schwab rarely turns to her mother for help when she’s talking about her upcoming toy drive.

The East Wenatchee 9-year-old knows what she wants to say, and says it.

“I’m hoping to get somewhere around 500 or more toys,” McKenna said.

They will go to the Women’s Resource Center in Wenatchee and to Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle. The latter facility is where McKenna has been treated for a rare condition and where a toy room is a favorite place for patients.

“I think there’s never enough toys,” McKenna said. “Maybe there is a toy I want to play with and they don’t have it. Maybe some kids are feeling that way and maybe I can get that toy for them.”

McKenna’s toy drive will be in the parking lot of Wenatchee Pediatric Dentistry, 246 N. Mission St., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Make A Difference Day, Saturday. Donations can be made at the dentist office on other days, too.

Organizer Laurel Helton, who has been involved with Make A Difference Day since its inception in 1991, said McKenna is one of the youngest people who have organized an event, and maybe the most involved.

“She’s showed strong leadership,” Helton said. “It’s not her mom who’s driving the project, it’s McKenna doing it.”

Helton has no doubts that McKenna will do well at her toy drive. Last year on Make A Difference Day, McKenna held a bake sale that raised $6,705, half of which came from a matching donor, Hurst Construction.

Mckenna decided on a toy drive this year, she said, after she and her friends took leftover baked goods to the Women’s Resource Center. There, she heard stories of need.

“I saw what other kids were going through,” she said. “It put me in shock for a minute. I wasn’t sure what to think because there were homeless kids in our own community. It was kind of scary to think that.”

McKenna is no stranger to scary. Born with joint abnormalities called Larsen Syndrome, McKenna has had 10 surgeries. The last one was a spinal fusion.

“The people at Children’s are just amazing,” McKenna said. “They are so nice. Before surgery, they will tell you what they’re going to do and then it’s not as scary.”

McKenna, the daughter of Melissa and Shawn Schwab, can’t play contact sports because of her condition.

McKenna said she plans to do another project for next year’s Make A Difference Day. She isn’t sure what, yet, but it will probably be to benefit sick and needy children.

“It just feels good doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

Dee Riggs: 664-7147

deeriggs@wenatcheeworld.com