NORWICH – Every year since its founding in 1947 by Marine reservist Major William L. Hendricks, Toys for Tots has striven against all odds to make sure as many children as possible avoid suffering a joyless Christmas. The thought of children awaking to barren Christmas trees within sight of homes where more fortunate tykes are fervently ripping through wrapping paper with feverish fingers, may bring sorrow to some, but there are those who are willing make the small efforts it takes to ebb a poor child’s heartache.
“The toys are more than just things,” said Chenango County Toys for Tots coordinator Roger Barnhart. “No, the toys really are just tools, symbols, for parents to show their children they care about them, and for children to know deep down that they are loved.”
Chenango County Toys for Tots benefits from having a number of different sponsors, including Roots & Wings, The Label Gallery in Norwich, the Marine Corps, as well as regular volunteering from the Opportunities for Chenango staff, the “Beautify Chenango County” program, and from the community in general.
Earlier this week, Roots & Wings Administrator Melinda Mandeville and her posse of volunteers, armed only with dangerously kind hearts, assembled at Toys for Tots’ new location in the old Rite Aid building, to start setting up for the holiday season.
“We’re calling it Left Aid,” joked Mandeville. The Rite Aid corporation donated the use of its vacant building on 90 North Broad St. in Norwich to Toys for Tots this year and organizers are very enthusiastic about the new venue. “We have so much available parking here and its a hub location,” she said. Organizers plan to decorate the windows with signs for Toys for Tots to make the location easy to identify.
In past years, volunteers picked toys based on the information given to them from the parents such as, age, gender, and interests, to assemble the packages for the kids. This year though, the “Left Aid” contingent are doing things a little differently. Instead, they plan to call up the enlisted parents and invite them into their base of operations for a chance to personally select the toys for their young whippersnappers. The perusing parents will be accompanied by a volunteer escort to see them through their journey at “Left Aid.” Parents are also asked to bring birth certificate to authenticate the existence of their child and avoid doppelganger gift-giving.
“We think that once the system has been established, things will be easier and less time consuming then when we had volunteers pick out gifts for people. Also, we believe the parents themselves will be much more satisfied,” said Mandeville.
