Delivering Christmas: Toys for Tots
On Thursday, my fellow Evening Sun staffer Tyler Murphy and I trekked across town to the Toys for Tots distribution center on South Broad Street. As I mentioned in last week’s column, I was really looking forward to pitching in for a couple of hours to help this amazing cause, which makes sure local children don’t go without during the holidays.
The local program, which is affiliated with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program, is a collaborative effort: the Label Gallery and former Marine Reservist Roger Barnhart coordinate the local toy drive, while Roots and Wings oversees the sorting and distribution of the toys collected.
As we walked from our office on Lackawanna Ave to the Toys for Tots location in the old Salvation Army store, I filled Tyler in on my experience sorting toys for the local non-profit last year with one of our other colleagues, Brian Golden. It had been Brian’s first day with the paper – the anniversary of which he’ll celebrate tomorrow, by the way.
On that day, Brian and I had both been amazed by the volume of new, unwrapped toys which had been donated (and/or purchased with donations), all destined to end up under the trees of local children whose families might not otherwise have been able to afford to buy them presents. We had gotten to play Santa’s helpers, selecting gifts for each child based on the wish lists created by their parents. The whole experience had really touched my heart.
But this year, when Tyler and I walked in the door at 19 S. Broad, there were no big piles of toys. The tables, which last year were heaped with items sorted by age and gender preferences, held only a sparse assortment.
Roots and Wings Director Melinda Mandeville, whose organization handles the sorting and distribution of the toys for the local Toys for Tots program, confirmed our worst fears. Donations are down this year, even though the need is as great as ever.
And consider this: According to Melinda, sign ups for the program are on the par with last year, which was record setting for the local group. In 2009, they distributed a total of 6,819 toys to 2,066 local children. That was a substantial jump from the previous year when they provided 5,534 toys to 1,651 children.
Even though there weren’t toys to sort, Melinda and her colleague Kim Wales still had work for Tyler and I. Handing us a binder filled with the contact information for families whose Christmas wish lists had already been filled, Kim pointed us toward the phones. Our task was to tell people when and where they could pick up the toys and remind them they needed to bring either a birth certificate or similar piece of identification for each of the children on the list.
When we questioned Melinda about this last part, she explained that some people had tried to abuse the system in the past – registering the same children more than once and even making up names. To reduce the chances of this continuing, they borrowed the idea to ask for ID from a neighboring county’s Toys for Tots program and are implementing it for the first time this year.
Even though we practiced our schpiel a couple of times before making the first call, it took awhile for Tyler and I to get the hang of it. Some callers had questions we weren’t sure how to answer. And there were a few times we tripped over our words – like the message Tyler left on one person’s answering machine telling them to make sure they brought gift certificates for each of their kids instead of birth certificates.
The true significance of what we were doing, though really hit home when I spoke with one woman who told me that without Toys for Tots her child wouldn’t have had a Christmas this year.
Her words lingered in my thoughts as Tyler and I spent the rest of our time at Toys for Tots making calls, filing, retrieving packages for those coming to collect toys and accepting donations from kind-hearted souls who walked in the door.
When it was time to return to work, I took off my green Delivering Christmas apron and folded it carefully. While I did so, I felt proud to be even the smallest cog in the wheel of this effort which taps into the generosity of Chenango County residents in the true spirit of this holiday.
Toys for Tots will continue to accept donations of new, unwrapped toys at collection sites throughout Chenango County for the next two weeks. Families can sign up to receive toys for their children until Dec. 15.
For more information on Toys for Tots, contact The Label Gallery at 334-3244 or Roots and Wings at 336-7897.
The local program, which is affiliated with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program, is a collaborative effort: the Label Gallery and former Marine Reservist Roger Barnhart coordinate the local toy drive, while Roots and Wings oversees the sorting and distribution of the toys collected.
As we walked from our office on Lackawanna Ave to the Toys for Tots location in the old Salvation Army store, I filled Tyler in on my experience sorting toys for the local non-profit last year with one of our other colleagues, Brian Golden. It had been Brian’s first day with the paper – the anniversary of which he’ll celebrate tomorrow, by the way.
On that day, Brian and I had both been amazed by the volume of new, unwrapped toys which had been donated (and/or purchased with donations), all destined to end up under the trees of local children whose families might not otherwise have been able to afford to buy them presents. We had gotten to play Santa’s helpers, selecting gifts for each child based on the wish lists created by their parents. The whole experience had really touched my heart.
But this year, when Tyler and I walked in the door at 19 S. Broad, there were no big piles of toys. The tables, which last year were heaped with items sorted by age and gender preferences, held only a sparse assortment.
Roots and Wings Director Melinda Mandeville, whose organization handles the sorting and distribution of the toys for the local Toys for Tots program, confirmed our worst fears. Donations are down this year, even though the need is as great as ever.
And consider this: According to Melinda, sign ups for the program are on the par with last year, which was record setting for the local group. In 2009, they distributed a total of 6,819 toys to 2,066 local children. That was a substantial jump from the previous year when they provided 5,534 toys to 1,651 children.
Even though there weren’t toys to sort, Melinda and her colleague Kim Wales still had work for Tyler and I. Handing us a binder filled with the contact information for families whose Christmas wish lists had already been filled, Kim pointed us toward the phones. Our task was to tell people when and where they could pick up the toys and remind them they needed to bring either a birth certificate or similar piece of identification for each of the children on the list.
When we questioned Melinda about this last part, she explained that some people had tried to abuse the system in the past – registering the same children more than once and even making up names. To reduce the chances of this continuing, they borrowed the idea to ask for ID from a neighboring county’s Toys for Tots program and are implementing it for the first time this year.
Even though we practiced our schpiel a couple of times before making the first call, it took awhile for Tyler and I to get the hang of it. Some callers had questions we weren’t sure how to answer. And there were a few times we tripped over our words – like the message Tyler left on one person’s answering machine telling them to make sure they brought gift certificates for each of their kids instead of birth certificates.
The true significance of what we were doing, though really hit home when I spoke with one woman who told me that without Toys for Tots her child wouldn’t have had a Christmas this year.
Her words lingered in my thoughts as Tyler and I spent the rest of our time at Toys for Tots making calls, filing, retrieving packages for those coming to collect toys and accepting donations from kind-hearted souls who walked in the door.
When it was time to return to work, I took off my green Delivering Christmas apron and folded it carefully. While I did so, I felt proud to be even the smallest cog in the wheel of this effort which taps into the generosity of Chenango County residents in the true spirit of this holiday.
Toys for Tots will continue to accept donations of new, unwrapped toys at collection sites throughout Chenango County for the next two weeks. Families can sign up to receive toys for their children until Dec. 15.
For more information on Toys for Tots, contact The Label Gallery at 334-3244 or Roots and Wings at 336-7897.
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