Toys For Tots, Trinkets For Teens Seeking Donations
December 1, 2020 at 12:11 a.m.
Toys For Tots, Trinkets For Teens Seeking Donations
By David [email protected]
“We did help over 230 families last year and expect the number to be the same or higher this year due to COVID,” said local Toys for Tots organizer and former U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Morales.
Sign up is online this year. Families can check the Toys for Tots website for information or email Morales at [email protected]. Information that will be required includes parents’ names, address, phone number, the boy’s and/or girl’s name(s) and their ages. Sign up is now through Friday only.
Delivery of the Christmas toys will be Dec. 19.
The Toys for Tots campaign began Nov. 23 and goes until Dec. 21.
Locations around the county to drop off new, unopened toys include Ace Hardware, Mentone; Latte Lounge, Side House Grill, Why Pay Retail, Walgreens, CVS, Menards, Martin’s, Walmart, Meijer, Shear Envious, Stock & Field (formerly Big R), Warsaw Orthodontics and Monteith Tire in Warsaw; Tippy Creek Winery, Leesburg; Miotto’s Main Street Bar & Grill, Milford; The Revolving Closet and Remax Lakes Realtors, Syracuse; Hunter’s BBQ, Etna Green; any fire department in the county and all six Freedom Express locations.
WNDU channel 16 will be at Martin’s from 7 to 11 a.m. Dec. 12 for their annual toy drive for Toys for Tots. Social distancing and masks will be required. The Warsaw choir will perform and different groups have volunteered to help that day.
The toy fundraiser concert with Susie McEntire and special guest Linda Davis is scheduled for Dec. 12 at Lakeview Middle School auditorium, with limited seating. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the concert beginning at 7 p.m. The concert is free but organizers ask attendees to donate a new, unopened toy.
Trinkets for Teens also is collecting gifts for older children. “It is an organization that allows kids 13 to 18 to have a Christmas as long as their siblings are involved in Toys for Tots,” said Warsaw Community High School Family Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) President Kendra Lancaster.
Donations Trinkets for Teens usually is looking for includes perfumes, colognes, wallets, books, jewelry, headphones and games among other teen items. They don’t collect clothes because they don’t know the size of the clothes the teens wear.
Lancaster said they’re working to get a box put out at Stock & Field where they’ve had them in the past. There are donation boxes at WCHS for people to make drop-offs.
She said they’ve partnered with a bunch of churches who have donated money toward Trinkets for Teens, as well as Lake City Bank.
Trinkets for Teens started collecting prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and will keep collecting donations until Dec. 9. FCCLA will package and deliver the items to Toys for Tots on Dec. 18.
“Last year, my past partner and I helped 85 teens in Kosciusko County,” Lancaster said, noting that it’s usually in the 80s range every year. She hopes they can help more teens this year. Morales provides Trinkets for Teens with the number of teens in families that need the gifts.
For anyone seeking more information or with questions about Toys for Tots, contact Morales by email at [email protected] or call 574-551-9895.
For more information on Trinkets for Teens, call Kendra Lancaster at 574-527-5258 or by email at [email protected]; or call Dena Lancaster at WCHS at 574-527-4418.
The Kosciusko County Toys for Tots campaign website can be found at https://warsaw-in.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.aspx?nPageID=100&nPreviewInd=200&nRedirectInd=3.
The basic mission of the Marine Toys for Tots program is to collect new unwrapped toys and distribute those toys to less fortunate children at Christmas, according to the website. The primary goal of Marine Toys for Tots is, through the gift of a new toy, help bring the joy of Christmas and send a message of hope to America's less fortunate children. In order to better execute the program, in 1991 the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation was created at the behest of the Marine Corps.
Toys for Tots began in 1947 as the brain child of Marine Corps Reserve Major Bill Hendricks. It was his wife, Diane, who was the real inspiration. She had a few handcrafted dolls and asked Bill to deliver them to an agency that supports children in need.
When Bill reported back to his wife that he could not find such an organization, she instructed him to “start one!” Maj. Hendricks and the Marines in his reserve unit in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys in 1947.
Seeing such successful community engagement in 1947, the Commandant directed all Marine Reserve Sites to implement a TFT campaign transforming it into a national community action program in 1948, the website states.
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“We did help over 230 families last year and expect the number to be the same or higher this year due to COVID,” said local Toys for Tots organizer and former U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Morales.
Sign up is online this year. Families can check the Toys for Tots website for information or email Morales at [email protected]. Information that will be required includes parents’ names, address, phone number, the boy’s and/or girl’s name(s) and their ages. Sign up is now through Friday only.
Delivery of the Christmas toys will be Dec. 19.
The Toys for Tots campaign began Nov. 23 and goes until Dec. 21.
Locations around the county to drop off new, unopened toys include Ace Hardware, Mentone; Latte Lounge, Side House Grill, Why Pay Retail, Walgreens, CVS, Menards, Martin’s, Walmart, Meijer, Shear Envious, Stock & Field (formerly Big R), Warsaw Orthodontics and Monteith Tire in Warsaw; Tippy Creek Winery, Leesburg; Miotto’s Main Street Bar & Grill, Milford; The Revolving Closet and Remax Lakes Realtors, Syracuse; Hunter’s BBQ, Etna Green; any fire department in the county and all six Freedom Express locations.
WNDU channel 16 will be at Martin’s from 7 to 11 a.m. Dec. 12 for their annual toy drive for Toys for Tots. Social distancing and masks will be required. The Warsaw choir will perform and different groups have volunteered to help that day.
The toy fundraiser concert with Susie McEntire and special guest Linda Davis is scheduled for Dec. 12 at Lakeview Middle School auditorium, with limited seating. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the concert beginning at 7 p.m. The concert is free but organizers ask attendees to donate a new, unopened toy.
Trinkets for Teens also is collecting gifts for older children. “It is an organization that allows kids 13 to 18 to have a Christmas as long as their siblings are involved in Toys for Tots,” said Warsaw Community High School Family Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) President Kendra Lancaster.
Donations Trinkets for Teens usually is looking for includes perfumes, colognes, wallets, books, jewelry, headphones and games among other teen items. They don’t collect clothes because they don’t know the size of the clothes the teens wear.
Lancaster said they’re working to get a box put out at Stock & Field where they’ve had them in the past. There are donation boxes at WCHS for people to make drop-offs.
She said they’ve partnered with a bunch of churches who have donated money toward Trinkets for Teens, as well as Lake City Bank.
Trinkets for Teens started collecting prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and will keep collecting donations until Dec. 9. FCCLA will package and deliver the items to Toys for Tots on Dec. 18.
“Last year, my past partner and I helped 85 teens in Kosciusko County,” Lancaster said, noting that it’s usually in the 80s range every year. She hopes they can help more teens this year. Morales provides Trinkets for Teens with the number of teens in families that need the gifts.
For anyone seeking more information or with questions about Toys for Tots, contact Morales by email at [email protected] or call 574-551-9895.
For more information on Trinkets for Teens, call Kendra Lancaster at 574-527-5258 or by email at [email protected]; or call Dena Lancaster at WCHS at 574-527-4418.
The Kosciusko County Toys for Tots campaign website can be found at https://warsaw-in.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.aspx?nPageID=100&nPreviewInd=200&nRedirectInd=3.
The basic mission of the Marine Toys for Tots program is to collect new unwrapped toys and distribute those toys to less fortunate children at Christmas, according to the website. The primary goal of Marine Toys for Tots is, through the gift of a new toy, help bring the joy of Christmas and send a message of hope to America's less fortunate children. In order to better execute the program, in 1991 the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation was created at the behest of the Marine Corps.
Toys for Tots began in 1947 as the brain child of Marine Corps Reserve Major Bill Hendricks. It was his wife, Diane, who was the real inspiration. She had a few handcrafted dolls and asked Bill to deliver them to an agency that supports children in need.
When Bill reported back to his wife that he could not find such an organization, she instructed him to “start one!” Maj. Hendricks and the Marines in his reserve unit in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys in 1947.
Seeing such successful community engagement in 1947, the Commandant directed all Marine Reserve Sites to implement a TFT campaign transforming it into a national community action program in 1948, the website states.
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