In a huge, chilly warehouse on East Greg Street, local Toys For Tots coordinator Ken Santor is overwhelmed, surrounded by more new toys than you'd find in a big box toy store. Last year Toys For Tots distributed 197,000 toys in Washoe County. The goal this Christmas is 200,000 new toys. So far they're behind…they're short toys for 400 families. But Ken says they’ll get them, "Even if we have to go out and buy the toys to make sure the kids get a toy."
So far they’ve bought and collected there are board games to bikes. Toy cars to copters. Dolls...and earth movers. Microscopes and super cool Nerf guns. Super heroes and microscopes. Fashion kits and other toys that let you create.
A group of Marines started Toys For Tots soon after World War 2, distributing toys to kids whose parents can't afford them for Christmas. The toys in the warehouse now are good ones, bought new with $56,000 from the national Toys For Tots Foundation. Ken told me, “We know that come Christmas morning, when those kids open that present, they're going to have a grin from ear to ear."
Across town, there has been a lot of emotion witnessed by Major Darrin Trimmer too of The Salvation Army Reno Corps. He’s coordinating the Angel Trees toy drive: "Just the gratitude of the parents, to be able to give their kids Christmas gifts, which they didn't think they'd be able to."
There are fewer toys at the Salvation Army collection room on Sutro, but they had just taken a truckload donated to Angel Trees to their warehouse. His progress report? So far so good, even in a pandemic year: "With Covid, people are stepping up and helping out.” More than usual? “Yes, it seems that that's what's happening."
This year Walmart joined the Angel Tree campaign. Stores and other businesses host the trees while The Salvation Army supplies the angels…which are the children's names from 1,000 registered families and what they want for Christmas. He says the parents are requesting request a greater need this year…clothes.
Will there be enough donated? Both drives won't know for a few weeks. But Ken says there's no way Washoe County's needy kids are not going to have their toys under the tree Christmas morning. It’s this former marine's 9th year collecting them. He says, “I didn't realize it took so much work. But it’s worth it. I enjoy it, and every child needs a Christmas."
Toys For Tots collects toys from bins they place in stores. To see a list of where the donation bins are, or if you'd like to host a bin at your business, click this link:
https://reno-nv.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/donate-toys.aspx
And here's a link to the Salvation Army’s local Angel Trees: where you’ll find them and online donations:
