Toys for Tots, CAC kick off Christmas preparations

Sarah Ein­se­len — Staff

Jim Wil­son and Joe Kleinknecht deliver one of the Toys for Tots col­lec­tion boxes to Robyn Min­n­ear and Angie Owens at US Bank on Wednes­day. The bank is one of 18 loca­tions around Galion where donors may drop off children’s toys.

By Sarah Einselen

Inquirer Reporter

The Galion Kiwa­nis Club is col­lect­ing toys in its annual Toys for Tots cam­paign to pro­vide new toys for low-income Galion fam­i­lies to give to chil­dren at Christ­mas. Toys for Tots co-organizer Robyn Min­n­ear antic­i­pates increased par­tic­i­pa­tion this year, mean­ing the Kiwa­nis club will need as many dona­tions as pos­si­ble to fill the need.

“We are very, very low on toy inven­tory and really need the help,” Min­n­ear said. “We usu­ally have to do a lot of the shop­ping on our own out of our bud­get and that is tough sometimes.”

Last year, over 200 fam­i­lies signed up through the Ohio Heart­land Com­mu­nity Action Cen­ter on Buehler Street to shop at the Toys for Tots “store,” a tem­po­rary setup in the rear of Dr. Tom Fellner’s office in Uptowne. The 300 chil­dren that received Christ­mas gifts through the pro­gram were 12 years old or under. More than 50 fam­i­lies have already signed up this year.

Toys for boys are hard to come by, Min­n­ear said. She and co-organizer Angie Owens sug­gested sports equip­ment, like bas­ket­balls, and toy trucks and cars for them. Dolls, Legos® and games are also likely to be in demand.

Toys for Tots was over­run with stuffed ani­mals last year, so the orga­niz­ers ask that donors look for alter­na­tive toys. Any toys donated should be new, not gift-wrapped and worth no more than $10.

The items are left unwrapped on the Toys for Tots shelves so that par­ents may select what they think will be suit­able for their chil­dren. Kiwa­nis pro­vides black bags for par­ents to hide the toys in until they can wrap them at home.

Drop-off boxes for Toys for Tots are located at the fol­low­ing Galion busi­nesses: Galion Build­ing & Loan (both offices), First Fed­eral Bank of Ohio (both offices), US Bank, United Bank, First Merit Bank, Fire­lands Fed­eral Credit Union, Wil­son Insur­ance, Dol­lar Gen­eral East, Dol­lar Gen­eral West, Fam­ily Dol­lar, Geyer’s, Charlie’s Mar­ket, Drug Mart, Ver­i­zon (Uptowne), Galion Cham­ber of Com­merce and The Body Shop.

Donors who would pre­fer to give money to Toys for Tots may do so by call­ing (419) 468‑4285 or (419) 468‑2629.

What about chil­dren older than 12?

Ohio Heart­land Com­mu­nity Action Cen­ter pro­vides other pro­grams to pro­vide Christ­mas gifts for fam­i­lies, espe­cially those with chil­dren over age 12 who can­not par­tic­i­pate in Toys for Tots. Com­mu­nity mem­bers may sign up to “adopt” a fam­ily and pro­vide that fam­ily with gift items. “OHCAC inter­views low-income fam­i­lies and matches them up with fam­i­lies, churches, busi­nesses, groups, etc. who want to adopt,” accord­ing to Jill Lee, OHCAC direc­tor. Fam­i­lies need­ing assis­tance or any­one look­ing to adopt may con­tact the OHCAC at (419) 468‑5121. The OHCAC also accepts dona­tions of toys or funds to buy them for chil­dren over age 12.

Posted by Sarah Einselen on Nov 5 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.