The Clearwater/Clear Lake community showed its holiday spirit last weekend by collecting toys and donations for children.
All day Saturday, volunteers spend time outside local establishments for the annual one-day Toys for Tots drive.
“The whole community comes out for this,” says Faith Spanier of the Clearwater Legion Riders.
Toy collection boxes were set up, and volunteers stood outside the Travel Plaza, Clearwater American Legion, Clearwater Corners, Flinstones and the Brickyard in Clear Lake, where the Clear Lake Fire Dept. helped out by ringing the holiday bell and greeting people.
“All of these establishments welcome us with open arms to come kick off the holiday season,” says Spanier.
Whatever they collected was dropped off at the area distribution center in Big Lake, which covers all Toys for Tots collections in Big Lake, Monticello, Clearwater and Clear Lake.
Each site typically collects about two boxes. The cash donations for all sites is about $2,400 to $2,800, Everything goes to the U.S. Marine Corps Community Toys for Tots organization.
“They’ll be sorted and put into categories,” says Spanier. “The money they collect will be used to buy the kind of things that didn’t get donated. A lot of the time it’s things for the teenagers.”
The organization gets special discounts, and since it’s a non-profit, they pay no sales tax.
“So the money actually goes further,” says Spanier.
She says the entire operation is done by volunteers.
“That’s the beauty of Toys for Tots, it’s 100% volunteer driven, not like some of the other organizations where a few cents on the dollar actually goes to charity,” she says.
And people in the community like the interaction with the volunteers during the events.
“It’s a good Christmas activity because we do something that’s bigger than just the extended family. It’s good cheer, good friends and people come out who haven’t seen each other all year,” says Spanier.
She says people are happy to help, including other kids.
“It’s amazing the outpouring of people. They show up and they’ll either have their kids put money in the box or they’ll go out and buy toys and put them in the box,” she says. “It just makes people feel good.”
Even though the one-day collection event is finished, Toys for Tots collection boxes will be out until Christmas at different sites in the area. And people can still donate online by searching for their area at www.toysfortots.org.
