Christmas Gift Giveaway

Our community has an annual toy giveaway which was held this past weekend. One of the organizations I am a member of helps put this on, so I went to go help. I brought my soon to be 8 year old with me, as I am a big believer in community service and I want her to learn when she is young (like my parents did with me).

I have always thought that these giveaways are for children who are less fortunate and may not have much of a Christmas. In fact, our club president reminded us that we should treat each child as if this is the only present and holiday experience they will get. However, the toy giveaway was open to the public - anyone could show up (I didn't know this). We also had a separate food giveaway but you had to have a voucher for that.

So leading up to this, I talked to my kid about it, telling her that this may be the only gift some of these kids get, that this should remind her to be thankful for what she has (I am by no means OT baller rich but we are blessed to provide some gifts each year).

So we are there, and the doors open, and the fourth kid that walks by our table to get a gift is her good friend from 2nd grade. Kids go to a Catholic school. Parents are both lawyers who live in a 500K house and drive late model Mercedes (while I drive a 10 year old Japanese car). I don't know them well at all, the kid has slept by our house once, but I was out of town when that happened.

So now my daughter is very upset as she thinks her friend is poor and needs help, and she wants to give some of her toys to the little girl. Which is sweet. But clearly the friend doesn't need any help (at least that's is what it seems) and the parents just seem to want to get the kid a free toy.

Anyone else go through something similar? How do I get out of this one?