Every year at this time, I like to remind folks of my personal favority charity organization – Toys for Tots. In 1947, a woman named Diane Hicks had made a Raggedy Ann doll as a craft project, and decided that it should go to a less fortunate child at Christmas time. She asked her husband, Bill Hendricks, a major in the Marine Corp Reserves in Los Angeles, to find an agency that could deliver this toy appropriately. When he found that none existed, she suggested that he start one. That first year, he collected and distributed 5000 toys to needy children. And thus was born Toys for Tots. The program was so successful that in 1948, the Marine Corp adopted it and turned it nationwide. It’s been delivering on it’s goal to bring the joy of Christmas to America’s needy children ever since.

This last year they started a new facet of the organization, the Literacy Program. They teamed up with The UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc to give people the opportunity to buy $1 donation cards that are then turned into books for deserving kids. This is a great continuation of their overall objective: to help needy children throughout the United States experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active role in the development of one of our nation’s most valuable natural resources – our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause for three months each year during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future.

Toys for Tots and the Marines help millions of children each year, even during this time of war deployment. In 2005, they delivered 18.5 million toys to over 7.5 million children, and I’m proud to say that each year I do what I can to help the cause, and I’d like you to consider giving back some of your love of toys to children that might not ever realize just how wonderful it can be.

As adults collecting toys, we really have it made. We can eat our cake and have it too – we’re reliving the joy of our childhoods through our collecting habits of our old age. But there are lots of children out there who don’t have the kind of childhood we had – or the kind of childhood we wish we’d had. These children are less fortunate than we were, or at least most certainly less fortunate than we are now.

So here’s your call to arms. You collect toys because of the love you developed for those silly playthings of your youth. By giving new, unopened toys to your local Toys for Tots campaigns, you can give other children the chance to develop that same bond, to have that special friend in Pooh or Tigger, or to learn just how much fun they can have with a couple G.I. Joes and an empty lot.

When you see those toys on clearance, think about it. Is it really all that much to spend a little on bringing the joy to a child on Christmas morning? I’d think most of us would agree that helping kids is the greatest work we can do.

To get further information on the program, and contact information for local coordinators, check the official web site. There will be drop off bins at many of your local stores, including Toys R Us again this year. Do what you can, even if it’s only a little – every bit helps.

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