Active Dental, a family and emergency dental practice with five locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is bringing back its holiday toy drive, the Smiles for Medical City Children’s Toy Drive, to benefit Medical City Children’s Hospital. From Monday, Nov. 30, through Friday, Dec. 11, 2026, patients, families and community members can drop off new, unwrapped toys at any Active Dental office. Every donation will be delivered to Medical City Children’s Hospital to brighten the holidays for young patients and their families.
The toy drive is personal for the practice. It was created in honor of Ariyan, the son of Active Dental founder and CEO Kalpesh Patel, DDS. Ariyan was cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Medical City as a newborn, and the Patel family has never forgotten the nurses, physicians and staff who looked after him, or the families they met during that time. Each holiday season, the practice gathers toys and brings them back to the hospital as a thank-you and as a way to support the families now walking a similar path.