- Image by myoldpostcards via Flickr
No matter where you live in the United States chances are that you have probably seen or encountered the huge community event known as Toys for Tots. Every year around the holidays the United States Marine Corpse comes out and starts searching for charitable donations from the public. While this is certainly nothing new around the holiday season, the Toys for Tots programs is a unique charitable event that is very rich in history and community involvement.
The Toys for Tots organization started in 1947 when a wife of a local marine wished to donate a toy to a needy child. Finding no charity that she knew of to donate the toy to she mentioned it to her husband, who quickly gathered a bunch of marine reservists together to collect toys. They decorated bins and put them in front of stores where people could place the toys. That year they collected over 5,000 toys for needy children. The next year the organization quickly launched Toys for Tots Since 1947 the program has grown and expanded to all over the United States and as of to date they have collected over five hundred million toys for needy children.
The way that Toys for Tots works is very simple. There are donation boxes and bins placed all over the country where people can donate new, un-wrapped toys to children who come from needy families. These bins will usually start making their appearance around October or November so there is enough time to collect the toys for Christmas. Occasionally the Toys for Tots organization will arrange for a public drop off location but for those that are unable to drop the toys off there are hundreds of drop off locations all over the country.
The toys that are collected are then taken to local shelters and hospitals where the United States Marine Corpse passes out the toys to the local children.
