When father of two, husband and city of Vancouver employee Korey Cochran was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer in 2015, his co-workers rose to the occasion.
Determined to give the Cochran family a bright holiday season, they collected toys for his young kids.
“It just started as an internal thing. I said to my team, ‘Hey, instead of doing Secret Santa gifts, lets buy gifts for Korey’s kids,’ ” said Jen Thomas, organizer of the drive and an employee at the city’s parks and recreation department.
“And it just kind of spread through the city.”
Four Christmas seasons later, Korey’s Joy Drive is a massive undertaking. This year, the team collected five and a half truckloads full of toys for kids of all ages, Thomas said. They delivered the haul to five different charities last Monday — Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel, Children’s Center, Open House Ministries, the Children’s Justice & Advocacy Center and Share of Vancouver.
“We definitely brought in more than last year,” Thomas said. The donations included toys for all ages.
“Legos, Barbies, action figures, stuffed animals, bikes, scooters,” Thomas said. “We also included warm clothing this year, which is something new.”
The city started collecting donations on Nov. 12 at 10 different locations, including City Hall, police and fire stations, the Firstenburg and Marshall community centers and Latte Da Coffee House & Wine Bar.
The scale of the holiday drive might have changed, but the Cochran family is still involved. Korey’s two kids are a little older now — Kynen is 4 and Kyrsten is 7– and they helped sort through the toy bins along with some of their extended family and Kyrsten’s Girl Scout troop.
“We had a lot of help this year,” Thomas said.
Korey, who worked as a computer support specialist in the city of Vancouver’s information technology department, felt something was wrong in early November 2015 when his speech started to slur. He rushed to the hospital a few weeks later after a seizure, and a CT scan showed two masses in his brain. He had a little-known brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme, and doctors told him he had nine to 18 months to live.
After three surgeries and a round of chemotherapy, his illness stopped responding to treatment.
“This is a disease where nothing really works. It’s all about progression,” Korey told The Columbian in 2016.
Encouraged by his doctors to go live his life, he embarked on a bucket list adventure to Alaska with his brother and devoted his time to his wife and young children.
He died Jan. 4, 2017. He was 38 years old.
Korey’s Joy Drive is a way of honoring Korey while brightening the holidays for needy kids in a way that involved his own children.
“My goal was, once they’re old enough, to be able to pass it onto them to continue that memory of their father,” Thomas said.
