Morristown Teen Who Launched Toy Drive To Receive Good Deed Award

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Charlie Lia has spent the last two holiday seasons giving to others. And now the favor is being returned.

Lia, the Morristown High School student who founded “Wesley’s Toy Box” in honor of his late pediatrician Dr. Wesley Boodish, is being honored with the American Legion Auxiliary Good Deed Award by Post 43 in Florham Park.

Lia, a former patient at St. Barnabas as a child, said the pediatric unit there and his doctor saved his life.

Later, as a teen, he started the program after Boodish died in 2014. “Wesley’s Toy Box” is a toy drive that delivers new toys to patients at St. Barnabas during the holiday season.

Pictured: Charlie Lia and Mrs. Boodish, the wife of the late Dr. Wesley Boodish, with the toys collected in 2014. Photo Courtesy Charlie Lia.