By Honorary Reporter Violet Lunchell from Argentina
Photos and images = Violet Lunchell 

In general, most people have a favorite fictional character from a TV show, movie or animated series. We often express our affection for a character by buying merchandise related to him or her. But this year, I decided to celebrate the birthday of my favorite Korean characters through charity.

June 11 is the birthday of twin brothers Choi Sae-young and Sae-ran from the famous Korean otome game Mystic Messenger. They had a difficult childhood and life and thus never got to celebrate Children's Day, Christmas or their birthday, and even had no toys to play with.

While thinking of the sad story of these two, I realized that this is also the sad reality of many children around the world. So I decided to do something about it.

Most of us have toys stored in our homes that we haven't played with in years. We usually keep them due to nostalgic attachment. Yet years can pass before we even remember that we still have them. So wouldn't it be better to give them to people who could appreciate them more?

Many organizations accept donations. Just do research and choose the one you feel most comfortable donating to. In my case, a friend told me that a public hospital was asking for toy donations for child patients with serious illnesses.

First, I contacted Cheritz, the Korean company that created Mystic Messenger, and asked for permission to donate in the company's name. As a supporter of many causes, Cheritz unsurprisingly granted me permission and encouraged me in my mission.

I also contacted volunteers at the hospital on donation guidelines. Donors should give unbroken toys and make sure that they're clean and suitable for children.

I wanted this donation to be special, so I put a tag with an illustration I designed around the necks of more than 20 stuffed animals I gave. I also packed over 20 goodie bags with miniature toys and decorated them with stickers, and collected a pile of children's books and magazines. All of these items used to make me happy when I was a child, so I wanted them to make others happy.

Finally on June 7, I headed to Dr. Ricardo Gutierrez Hospital in Buenos Aires and delivered my donation. Due to the pandemic, I couldn't directly give the toys to the kids, so I left them with the volunteers.

As a reward, Cheritz gave me a badge as an honorary member of Rika's Fundraising Association, the fictional body players of the game are part of.

I sincerely thank Cheritz and Mystic Messenger for motivating me to help causes such as this. And I hope others are motivated to help their communities, too.

The video below shows my donating experience (in Spanish):

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.