Helping the Helpers: Toys for Tots marking 75th year
Courtesy of Washington Toys for Tots
Washington Toys for Tots is an annual Christmas campaign that provides Christmas gifts for children in need.
Courtesy of Washington Toys for Tots
Colby Jeffrey has held a toy drive for Washington Toys for Tots for the past nine years. This year’s drive is slated for Dec. 11 at Krispy Kreme at Trinity Pointe, Washington.
Courtesy of Washington Toys for Tots
Each year, the Washington Toys for Tots drive collects new, unwrapped toys that are distributed to area children in need at Christmas.
Courtesy Accutrex Inc.
Accutrex Inc. is holding its annual drive for the 75th Toys for Tots campaign. Employees dressed as Christmas characters as they embraced the holiday season.
Editor’s note: Today, we kick off a series of stories to highlight the nonprofits in our area. From now until Christmas, look for the “Helping the Helpers” logo to read about a different organization every day. The series will profile nonprofits in the region that focus on human services, community betterment and the arts, and include ways to help them continue to help others.
This holiday season marks the 75th anniversary of the well-loved Toys for Tots program.
The national initiative was launched in 1947 to collect and distribute toys for children whose families may not have the financial means to buy them gifts for Christmas.
“The primary goal is to make Christmas joyful for kids. Christmas for kids is such an important thing,” said Michael Pallesco, Toys for Tots coordinator for Washington and Greene counties.
Toys for Tots was started when Diane Hendricks, the wife of Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Bill Hendricks, asked her husband to deliver a few handcrafted dolls she’d made 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. Hendricks and the Marines in his reserve unit in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys in 1947.
Today, Toys for Tots distributes an average of 18 million toys to 7 million less fortunate children annually.
Washington Toys for Tots is a key part of those efforts.
Thanks to local individuals and businesses who supported the program with donations of toys, Toys for Tots served about 3,500 children in Washington and Greene counties in 2021 and distributed more than 30,000 toys, books, and stocking stuffers.
About 300 toy collection boxes are currently located in businesses in the counties. Patrons can look for the familiar white and red boxes with the Toys for Tots train logo and drop off new and unwrapped toys.
A list of the drop-off sites is located at Washington-pa.toysfortots.org.
Among the local companies collecting toys is Accutrex Products Inc., where employees recently dressed as Christmas characters ranging from the Grinch to the bunny from A Christmas Story.
“We’re a veteran-owned company and we hold a Toys for Tots drive every year, and this was just us getting into the spirit of the season and reinforce for the employees here the there’s a reason we do this,” said Heather Kondas, executive assistant at Accutrex. “The holidays are for kids and we want to make it extra special for them.”
The local Toys for Tots chapter was started in 2003 by Pallesco’s father, Ralph Pallesco, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. When he passed away in 2013, Pallesco assumed the role of coordinator.
One of the Washington Toys for Tots most dedicated supporters is 14-year-old Colby Jeffrey, who is holding his ninth annual toy drive for Toys for Tots on Dec. 11.
Colby started the annual drive when he was 5 years old after hearing about the program at a school assembly and decided he wanted to help.
Every year at the drive, donors fill Colby’s parents’ box truck with toys. This year the box truck will be at Krispy Kreme at Trinity Pointe, Washington, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Pallesco noted, too, that there are parents who once turned to Toys for Tots to help make Christmas special for their children and now volunteer for the program.
“Right now, there are three or four mom who, when their children were young, used Toys for Tots, and they volunteer every year now,” said Pallesco.