TRAVERSE CITY — “The need has never been greater.”
The Toys for Tots campaign is synonymous with the Christmas season.
This week is the biggest week for the yearly toy drive as volunteers enter the final days of collecting toys for kids in need.
“This week is really important because the toys that we collect this week will get under those trees for this Christmas,” said Fox Grand Traverse Ford manager Tom Gordon.
Volunteers will soon begin sorting toys at their distribution center
Toys for Tots volunteer George Champlin has been working with Toys for Tots for years. He said more than 70 volunteers work in the distribution center, preparing toys to go under the tree.
Champlin said last year, nearly 23,000 toys helped 5,000 kids in the greater Grand Traverse area.
“I had these big boxes that we put the toys in, they take and sort toys and they put them by ages, anywhere from newborn up to 16, 17 years old. And then once they’re all sorted, they bag them up,” said Champlin.
But this year, organizers and volunteers have noticed inflation taking a toll on donations.
“Last year, we got over 300 bikes. This year we’ll probably have about 200. But the problem is that bikes have almost doubled in price from what they could get last year. They can only get about half that many this year,” said Champlin.
Anyone interested in donating has until December 22nd to drop their toy donation off.
“We’ve had a lot of the people that you see donating, or we see donating daily here,” said Gordon. “We’re recipients of Toys for Tots when they were young, so they remember how special that feeling was, and now it’s their chance to give back.”