Submitted photo Elkins Rotary President Tammie Rizzio and Toys for Tots Coordinator Chris Lee display examples of items being collected for this year’s toy drive. The club and its members will continue to contribute to this year’s campaign through its conclusion on Dec. 19.

ELKINS – Elkins Rotarian and Randolph County Toys for Tots coordinator Chris Lee addressed the club, outlining this year’s local Toys for Tots campaign.

Toys for Tots is a program of the Marine Corp Reserve that collects and distributes new toys to economically disadvantaged families at Christmas, striving to bring the joy of Christmas and a message of hope to the children it serves.

The seeds for the program were planted in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks and his wife, who had made a doll and asked her husband to deliver it to an organization that would gift it to a less fortunate child on Christmas day. When he was unable to do so, Hendricks and members of his Los Angeles Marine Reserve unit collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children of LA that Christmas. The following year, the Marine Corp Reserve adopted the program, bringing smiles to children ever since.

While the program was originally operated by the Marine Corp Reserve, today there are many non-Marine coordinators supporting the program with about half of the volunteers being civilians.

“The mission of Toys for Tots in Elkins is to collect and distribute toys in Randolph County,” Lee said. “Any donation collected, be it toys or money, will be distributed to the kids in our community.

“Our goal is to ensure that every child who registers is able to celebrate Christmas just like everybody else. The idea is to bring joy to kids hearts the way Major Hendricks did nearly 72 years ago.”

The Leland D. “Crow” Crawford Marine Corp League has existed in Elkins for many years and oversaw the program from 2002 through 2019. In 2020, Lee became involved with the program at the request of the Marine Corp League members, who expressed concern that the League wouldn’t be able to carry out the mission of the program because most of the volunteers were older gentlemen who were concerned about possible negative implications of the COVID pandemic.

With the help of the Randolph County Family Resource Network and Elkins Mayor Van Broughton, Lee was able to step in and lead the program that year.

When Lee took over, the program was serving 1,100 children in seven counties, including Randolph, Tucker, Upshur, Lewis, Taylor, Marion and Harrison counties; 800 of those children were from Randolph County. The following year, the local program evolved, and Lee’s group now serves just Randolph County and also assists the community of Brownton in Barbour County through Brownton Helping Hands.

“Last year, 2023, we served 263 families with 660 children in Randolph County and then 110 children through the Brownton Helping Hands. So far in this campaign, we’ve got 185 families and 486 children signed up. We’ll support 156 children through Brownton this year,” said Lee. “Toys are provided to children ages 2 through 13.”

Toys are donated through a number of sources. The Toys for Tots national organization provides a pallet of toys for Randolph County. Ollie’s in Clarksburg collects funds in-store each year and provides those monies for the next year’s program, amounting to between $3,000-$4,000, to be spent in Ollie’s.

“Next Sunday, they have an extra special Christmas sale happening at Ollie’s, I always try and hit that. Things are always cheap at Ollie’s but when we go then, we can get the 50% things off another 25% off. The money goes a lot further,” Lee said.

Donations from the community are a large component of the local campaign. Donation boxes can be found at Walmart and all Dollar General Stores in Randolph County. Thanks to the generosity of the community, Toys for Tots is able to provide 3 to 4 toys for each child.

“It’s really nice that this community participates in this campaign enough that we’re able to make Christmas a little better for children who are getting toys,” Lee said. “We accept toy donations and monetary donations. Everything we get, goes to support this campaign.”

Additional support for this year’s campaign comes from participating businesses and organizations hosting their own in-house toy drives. Participating businesses and organizations include Elkins Physical Therapy Service, Davis Medical Center, all locations of the Randolph County Senior Center, Youth Health Services, the Phil Gainer Center, the Mount Vernon 4-H Club, Megacorp Logistics, Freedom Bank, Buckhannon Toyota, Jen Kesling State Farm in Buckhannon, Farm Credit of Virginia (Clarksburg), Top Knot Hair in Elkins, Saint-Gobain in Buckhannon, Elkins Purple Majesties, the Elkins Veteran of Foreign Wars and WELK Radio.

“Times can get pretty tough around the holidays for folks and we’re just one of several really good programs that exist in this town to alleviate that,” Lee said. “I encourage you to support us, or Operation Christmas Child, or a kid off an angel tree. There are local drives that are being done at churches, participate in one of these things. It’s important to care for our neighbors.

“We can all define what the reason for the season is but I think we can all agree that it’s defined by love, kindness and showing compassion to others. This is a really good way to do that,” concluded Lee.

For more information about, or to make a donation to, Elkins Toys for Tots, visit the group’s website, Elkins-wv.toysfortots.org or email Lee at chrisleewv@gmail.com. Toys can be dropped off at the Phil Gainer Center or at any Toys for Tots collection box in the local area through Dec. 19. Volunteers are needed on Dec. 19 and 20 to sort the collected toys and on Dec. 21 to build the gift boxes.

Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in their communities, and in themselves. Visit www.Rotary.org to learn more about Rotary International, visit the club’s Facebook page – Rotary Club of Elkins – or contact club president Tammie Rizzio at tammierizzio@gmail.com for more information about the Rotary Club of Elkins.