The Toys for Tots storeroom one day last Christmas season.
— Contributed photo
The Marine Corps League is distributing large cardboard boxes around the town and the region for the annual Toys for Tots drive, and it couldn’t be timelier, because social services professionals say the need this year is greater than in recent years.
Many families have not fully recovered from the recession of 2008, when there were many layoffs, and they may be underemployed and not able to afford toys for under the tree, said Tony Phillips, director of social services in Ridgefield.
“On the whole, we believe we have another 20 to 30 children we’ll try to fill the needs for,” Phillips said.
The social services agencies get their toys from the regional Toys for Tots headquarters at 32 Halpin Lane in Ridgefield, the location of the Ridgefield Detachment of the Marine Corps League, a veterans organization of former U.S. Marines that has been coordinating Toys for Tots for decades.
“We put out about 165 boxes,” said Henry Norley, chairman of the Toys for Tots campaign.
The first public place to receive a collection box, last week, was the Ridgefield police station.
Other boxes will go to banks, real estate offices, elementary schools, and other locations around Ridgefield and the region over the next couple of weeks.
The campaign covers 11 towns and cities in northwest Fairfield County, and includes Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport.
The total intake last year was 36,000 toys, ranging from inexpensive stocking stuffers like Silly Putty to pricey bicycles.
“We take toys for all ages. We get less than we would like to for teenagers,” Norley said.
There is no recommended level of donation. “It’s whatever people are comfortable giving,” Norley said.
“We get stocking stuffers, books, arts and crafts, and expensive, beautiful bikes donated,” Norley said.
The organization does not distribute the toys to families. Rather, it lets the social services agencies and other groups visit the headquarters on Halpin Lane and take what they need.
The donated toys stay in Fairfield County.
“We give them out as quickly as they come in,” Norley said of the donated toys.
The Toys for Tots program was set up by the Marine Corps Reserve in 1948 and spread across the country, Norley said. The Ridgefield detachment has been participating since 1972.
Norley reflected on the fact that during his own childhood his parents were never too poor or financially strapped to afford Christmas toys. He likes helping others.
“I was very fortunate,” he said. “It’s amazing, the people we meet. The letters I get afterwards make it worthwhile.”
People who want to make a financial donation may also visit toysfortots.org online and designate the donation for their specific town. It gets credited to the local branch.
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