Toys for Tots will provide presents despite pandemic
CENTER TWP — While the coronavirus pandemic canceled several toy drives for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, volunteers remain determined to provide gifts under the tree this year to every child in need in Butler and Clarion counties.
Marine Corps Sgt. Chad Krumpe, the Butler Toys for Tots coordinator, oversaw the effort Monday to sort and organize the brightly colored contents of 1,000 Toys for Tots boxes collected from vestibules all over the county.
Volunteers in a vacant store at Clearview Mall emptied the boxes and inspected the toys before piling them into a large shopping cart and wheeling them across the aisle to another former store.
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There, another group of volunteers retrieved the toys and placed them in the appropriate sections on several large tables throughout the Toys for Tots “headquarters” across from Rural King.Spec. Trevor Hays was one of about a dozen volunteers from the 377th Engineer Company at the Army Reserves in Butler who donned their fatigues and helped sort and organize the incoming toys. Monday marked Hays' second time volunteering with Toys for Tots.Members of the local Bantam Marine Corps League also volunteer with Toys for Tots each year, and Krumpe said many other volunteers are veterans.“It's always nice to help out the kids,” Hays said. “Everybody is struggling right now. It's especially important this year as opposed to other years.”Krumpe agreed, saying many schools and community groups carried out annual toy drives, and many businesses asked employees to bring a toy for Toys for Tots to the company Christmas party.
But the pandemic had a significant effect on the number of toy drives that could be held in a year when many events were canceled and offices and schools closed.“Obviously, nobody is having a Christmas party,” Krumpe said of area businesses.Many local organizations, such as the American Legion Riders, various Legion auxiliaries, Butler County Community College, Seneca Valley School District, Moniteau School District and others, have donated toys this year.But Krumpe said because people are staying home and avoiding stores to decrease their likelihood of contracting COVID-19, those donations are down this year.Toys for Tots also received 350 bicycles from Al's Bike Drive last year, but officials from that charity were not able to get many bikes this year due to inventory being decreased in the pandemic.“He'll donate cash this year,” Krumpe said.
Compounding the problem is an extra 200 children who are in need of toys this year over and above the usual number, he said.“People are off work or were at some point,” Krumpe said of families who applied for toys, “and families are using their money for other resources, like their mortgage or utilities.”He said more than 2,800 youths from 973 families in Butler and Clarion counties will receive new toys from Toys for Tots this year.Donna Smith of Butler has been volunteering with the Butler Toys for Tots effort for six years.On Monday, she stacked up toys under the signs designating various age groups.“The majority are so appreciative of what Toys for Tots does for them,” Smith said. “If you think people are just out for free stuff, you need to come in here. I've seen parents cry.”Smith organizes toys from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for up to two weeks so children can have a nice Christmas.Smith said neither her family nor her husband's had much money when they were growing up, yet their parents managed to provide a magical Christmas morning with presents for everyone.
“This kind of stuff is really important to me,” she said of her work with Toys for Tots. “I don't want kids to not have a toy at Christmas.”Krumpe said all children on the Toys for Tots list will receive that same number of items they get each year, as donations will be used to buy gifts for the children.Donations of toys and checks will be ongoing at the Toys for Tots headquarters at Clearview Mall this week, and online ways to donate are available at butler-pa.toysfortots.org.Krumpe said all donations will be gratefully accepted.“Everything donated and raised here stays here, and everyone gets (toys) here,” Krumpe said. “It's a true local effort.”
