GARDEN CITY, Idaho — Last year Toys for Tots helped 14,000 kids celebrate the holidays, this year that number jumped to more than 25,000 families receiving gifts ahead of Christmas.
The campaign included 3,000 volunteers, a number of different sponsors, and the community showing their generosity by donating around 100,000 toys.
"It’s a massive deal and the increase has been staggering," said Tim Flaherty of Astegos.org. "I think that comes primarily from the community who stepped up and helped."
We showed up to the distribution center at Expo Idaho on Saturday where families were invited to come pick up the last 3,000 gift packages. Families left with a trash bag containing three toys, a teddy bear, a book, and some stocking stuffers.
"It alleviates a pretty big financial burden that’s really cool that some people do this kind of stuff," said Francisco Toscano, who has four children and had to deal with his truck recently breaking down ahead of the holidays. "Thank you so much they don’t know how much this means to people that are in our situation, it’s a real blessing."
Toys for Tots is an initiative led by the Marine Corps Reserve and it fits perfectly with their core values of honor, courage and commitment. Gunnery Sergeant, Gregory Stewart was blown away by how well it all went this year.
"There are people out there that actually care, to see people donate and take time out of their day during the Christmas season to give back to those that are more needy— it shows what I believe is America," said Stewart. "It shows why I serve and why I like being a part of this community."
The community stepped up in a big way and so did the sponsors. Those include Idaho News 6, Washington Trust Bank, Toyota, Avimor, Albertsons, Astegos.org and Idaho Expo donated to the warehouse on Saturday.
Avimor is donating a $650,000 home in a raffle that will help Toys for Tots secure a permanent warehouse. If you want to get in on the raffle it costs $100, there are 40,000 tickets available and they can be purchased at homeraffle.org.
