In honor and celebration of Eliana

Eliana Alderete, who died in March after a life-long battle pulmonary hypertension, would have celebrated her 21st birthday on July 28.

The School of Dreams Academy graduate lived more years and had more experiences than she was ever supposed to, according to her doctors.

Her mother, Lyndsi Chavez, knew she wanted to do something special to keep her daughter’s memory alive. Eliana’s favorite holiday was always Christmas, and she would listen to Christmas music year-round. She also loved to help others, and her favorite thing was gift-giving.

“We would tease her because anytime she would buy a gift for anyone, she couldn’t wait until the actual holiday or birthday to give it because she was just too excited,” Lyndsi said. “That is when I came up with the idea of doing a toy drive. We called it, ‘Eliana‘s Christmas in July Toy Drive.’”

The toy drive benefited UNM Children’s Hospital, where Eliana spent a lot of her life and where she received the majority of her care. The family’s initial goal was to donate the toys to the pediatric hospice program as they were the most involved in the last 10 years of Eliana’s life and as her condition worsened.

“I remembered how happy it would make her to get gifts for Christmas from people who had donated to the program, so I thought why not try a Christmas in July for these children who are suffering,” Lyndsi said. “We set up collection sites at Main Street Muscle and Fitness Center and at LaVida Felicidad (in Los Lunas).

“As always, the community went above and beyond our expectations. We collected 166 toys. Not only were we able to bless the hospice patients, but we also were able to donate to both the pediatric cardiac clinic and donate to the play room at the Children’s Hospital, where, as a child, Eliana loved the playroom.”

There were stuffed animals, baby toys, arts and crafts, Play-Doh, and a lot more toys donated. They also got special tags donated by Sarah Sandoval at Busy Bea Designs. The family attached the tags to all of the toys so whoever receives them would know where they came from.

“As always, we are thankful to the community for their love and support and hope to make this a yearly thing to honor Eliana‘s memory,” Lyndsi said. “Everyone at UNM Children’s Hospital was so thankful and excited to get the toys to the patients. It warmed my heart because I know it would’ve made Eliana so incredibly happy.”