It's that time of the year again, a time to spend with loved ones while enjoying the simpler things in life, a time of great conversation and great food. While the time we spend with our family and friends is the true gift of the Holiday Season there are many people that are not as fortunate as most. Most of our children will wake up on Christmas morning to a pile of presents under a Christmas Tree. What joy I feel watching my children's faces filled with anticipation as they rip open their gifts and how they cannot wait to tear open the box of their favorite gift that sat at the top of their Christmas list for months. Many parents do not get to experience that same joy.

According to the origin, Over sixty years ago, the wife of a Marine Corps Reserve officer handed her husband a hand-made doll and told him to give it to an organization that provided toys to poor children during the holidays. When he told her no such agency existed, she told him to start one. And so Toys for Tots was born. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign. That year, Marine Corps Reserve units across the nation conducted Toys for Tots campaigns in each community in which a Marine Reserve Center was located.  Marines have conducted successful nationwide campaigns at Christmas each year since 1948.  The initial objective that remains the hallmark of the program today is to “bring the joy of Christmas to America’s needy children”. 


Please help Toys for Tots this holiday season in delivering a message of hope to needy children in our own community by donating a new, unwrapped toy to the Sangamon County Chapter of Toys for Tots. Collection locations are listed here on the Toys for Tots website. Be sure to also check their listing of "Upcoming Local Events ."  For more information visit http://springfieldil.toysfortots.org