Charity turns golf balls into new toys for sick kids

In the early 1990s, Brian Billideau, founder of Smiles 4 Sick Children, started asking friends to donate new, unwrapped toys for the sick, hurt, and in some cases, abused children in Phoenix Children’s and other hospitals.

He founded the charity to honor the memory of a young girl who passed away too early. Since then, S4SC has now been able to donate over 42,000 new toys and gifts benefiting the kids in the Phoenix area.

Billideau joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss his journey in growing and maintaining his charity.

“…just a normal day in Flagstaff, and a young girl ran out into the street, and she ran directly in front of me, and I never saw her, and I hit her, and she passed away…that’s the worst point of your life,” Billideau said, “I’ll never forget it, but I tried to turn a bad day into something good by helping kids in the hospital.”

After Billideau retired, he and his wife had worked with other organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Toys for Tots, to provide roughly four to five thousand toys every Christmas.

“In the holidays, it’s easy to collect money,” Billideau explained. “My challenge is the rest of the year.”

Billideau had begun a project to collect golf balls, selling them to a local individual who refinishes them, and then donating the money. According to Billideau, they have collected around 375,000 golf balls, raising upwards of $67,000.

“We’re a 501c3,” Billideau said, “…and I’m asking everybody in the valley to donate their balls to fund golf balls to Smiles 4 Sick Children. I will turn them into toys.”

Billideau emphasized how they go to numerous hospitals all over Arizona, trying to help as many children as they can. One of the hospitals they often visit is Flagstaff Medical Center.