State Troopers are collecting Christmas toys for children whose parents may not be able to afford gifts.
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They separate the toys by age, from infant to 12, and gender.
Last season, the Marines collected more than 1,000 toys and almost $11,000 in donations thanks to the generosity of Chiefs fans.
“We have a lot more toys now than when we started when they were taken”, Buchanan said. Hundreds of people stopped by our station to donate toys and money towards the cause.
“Bikers from across the Triangle hit the streets with us to deliver Toys For Tots”, said Kris Weiss of Ray Price Harley-Davidson. This year someone stole them.
“We had some hard times”, he said.
Toys for Tots also benefitted from a recent collection by the local Titletown Jeepers club, which collected about 800 toys during its inaugural Toys for Tots Ride on Saturday.
Shirley Denerstein, 89, who is blind and was accompanied by her service dog, a rescued shih-tzu named Beau, is in charge of making sure there are batteries with each battery-powered toy. “Just being a kid and seeing a marine come to your house and make your Christmas very special, that stays with you for life. From the stories he’s told me, he would go on these calls on Christmas to these houses and these kids had nothing and my dad said it shouldn’t be like this”, Dennis Anderson said.
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This will be the 21st year of the Toys for Tots Program in the Greater Wilmington area. Consequently, that hundred or so toy donation bumped up to a 10,000-toy pledge last year, and the Marines matched it this year.
