Another Toys for Tots campaign for Gilmer County families has wrapped and final numbers show that 1,140 children received toys as part of the 2019 community outreach effort.
“Each child from newborn to 18 years old also got some stocking stuffers in addition to their toys and puzzle or game. Each child got a stocking with their name on it stuffed with eight stocking stuffers,” noted Ret. Marine Corps Sgt. A.J. LeCompte, the local campaign’s coordinator.
A few things were done differently in the coordination of this year’s toy drive, LeCompte explained.
“We had a raffle last year and several (downtown Ellijay) businesses donated items and gift certificates for that, which totaled $830. We sold tickets for the gift baskets from October through Dec. 7, which made $3,200. That was a real boost for our program,” he said.
“Eleven restaurants in the downtown area and East Ellijay also agreed to sponsor meals for people who were wrapping gifts. We started gift-wrapping each Wednesday, which was usually the biggest day with the most people.”
LeCompte, who attended several events and civic group meetings last year to raise awareness and funds, said another local Marine, Jim Adams, posted requests on social media pages that helped gain more volunteers who helped get toys wrapped and distributed.
“In 2018, we (reached) 1,179 kids, so there wasn’t a big difference in that number for 2019. The big difference this year was in the amount of help I got. In other words, it was easier this year,” he added. “The Gilmer County High School BETA, math, and robotics groups (also) arrived after school one day each week for five weeks to assist with stocking shelves and wrapping toys.”
‘Not just a couple of month’s operation’
Even though it doesn’t officially kick off until October, the Toys for Tots campaign is a year-round volunteer effort — from the people who help wrap and prepare gifts to those who donate toys, money and supplies like tape and wrapping paper, as well as a building in which the effort is centralized each year.
“When people donate funds to this, it stays in Gilmer County and it can’t buy anything but toys (except) 3 cents out of a dollar (can) go to promotional items we give out during the campaign,” LeCompte noted.
He described how following a set weekly schedule of tasks helped everything come together.
“This year, we distributed gifts on eight Mondays starting with the first Monday in November. We had four sites where people could fill out request forms. We picked those forms up on Monday afternoon or evening and processed them as far as running them through Charity Tracker to make sure (applicants) were not receiving help from another program and getting people approved. We would then pull toys and gift-wrap the rest of the week. The following Monday, those people could pick up the toys. There wasn’t a big turnaround time between when they put in the request forms and when they picked up toys,” he explained.
There’s also not much turnaround time between the end of one year’s campaign and the beginning of the next one.
“It’s not just a couple of month’s operation. People usually aren’t thinking about Christmas or getting involved until after Thanksgiving, but it’s not possible for us to operate in just that short period of time and be able to help this many children,” LeCompte said.
The outreach program headed by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves has existed since 1947 as a way of “bringing the joy of Christmas and sending a message of hope to America’s less fortunate children.” Today, Toys For Tots drives are conducted in more than 800 communities in all 50 states.
“I have to say they’ve perfected a lot of things in that period of time. To meet the 501(c)(3) standards of the foundation, you have to meet their standard operating procedure,” LeCompte said. “Right now, I’m doing the after-action report that’s required of every coordinator throughout the country. After you do that, you sign up for 2020. Some donations don’t come in until (right before) Christmas, so if there are any funds left over from the previous year you start looking for sales and start buying toys. We end up buying most of the toys early throughout the year.”
LeCompte said there wasn’t an active Toys for Tots drive in Gilmer County when he first started leading one almost 10 years ago. He hopes it will continue here for many years to come.
“It’s usually older Marines who head them up and they (eventually) pass away or move away. I always worry about that because I’m up in years and I’m not going to live forever. Hopefully, I can groom somebody who’s maybe younger than me to continue this and take it over,” he noted.