The place looks like a child’s wish list come true.
Bouncy balls, board games, fashion dolls and all sorts of other new playthings are stacked on shelves. At Snohomish County’s Toys for Tots storage facility in Everett, thousands of toys have been gathered. Soon, they’ll find their way into the hands of children for Christmas.
“A lot of people think it’s just a toy. It’s actually a symbol — a symbol of hope,” said Mary Butler, coordinator of the local Toys for Tots chapter.
Butler talked about the program recently at the organization’s toy storage area in the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Everett. She shared the good news of a $5,000 grant Toys for Tots received from the Tulalip Walmart store. That money will be used to buy toys for organizations requesting Toys for Tots donations.
The Tulalip Walmart also will host a toy drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Butler expects it to be the area’s largest Toys for Tots drive this season. “And you don’t have to go out on Black Friday to help,” she said.
In years past, Butler said, Toys for Tots didn’t start taking applications for help before mid-November. The effort started early this year. In short order, the great need became clear.
“By the first of October, we were already above the requests for all last year,” Butler said.
In 2010, she said, the county’s Toys for Tots provided about 25,000 toys to 11,000 children. “This year, we have double the requests. We hope to distribute 50,000 toys,” Butler said.
The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is a charitable wing of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. It began in 1947 when a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles set out to collect toys for 5,000 children. In 1948, a Toys for Tots logo was designed by Walt Disney.
Butler became involved through her previous volunteer work at Mariner High School. The local organization is officially South Snohomish County Toys for Tots, and defines its service area as from Smokey Point to the Snohomish-King County line, but calls for help come from all over the county, Butler said.
She recently had a request for toys from the Darrington Family Support and Resource Center. “It surprised me. We’ve never had a request from that far away before,” Butler said.
Toys go to agencies and to individual families who apply for help. Recipients range from Christmas House, an Everett charity, to Naval Station Everett for a holiday party for families, to the state Department of Social and Health Services for children in foster care, to area food banks that provide holiday gifts, and many other agencies.
Butler said the Toys for Tots application does not require families to meet income requirements as strict as some other agencies. “We have a lot of families who are able to pay the rent and keep the lights on, but they don’t have anything for Christmas — the working class,” she said. “On applications we see that someone has lost a job, or has been unemployed since last year. We see to those needs.”
If families don’t have transportation, Butler said volunteers often help by bringing parents to the Toys for Tots site and taking them home. Butler is not paid for her work with Toys for Tots, which becomes nearly full-time this time of year.
She is optimistic about being able to fulfill wishes, even with this year’s economic challenges. “We’ve been fortunate,” she said. Almost 600 toys and $21,000 in donations were left over from last year. Toy buying starts after Christmas to take advantage of sales.
Helping at the storage facility were her husband, King Butler, and 3-year-old grandson, Marquell. “He’s our toy tester,” she said.
Watching the little boy in a room filled with toys makes Butler all the more aware of the joy a simple gift can bring to a child.
“Christmas is supposed to be a time of giving. We don’t want any family to go without if we can help it,” Butler said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Toy drive on Saturday
Toys for Tots will hold a toy drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Quil Ceda Village Walmart store, 8924 Quilceda Blvd., Tulalip. Other stores also may have donation barrels.
New toys may be dropped off by appointment through Dec. 19 at a collection site at Everett’s Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, 2711 Oakes Ave.
Arrange drop-off time with Toys for Tots coordinator Mary Butler, 425-344-0359 or email butlerm39@yahoo.com.
For information about applying for Toys for Tots help, go to http://tinyurl.com/ToysEverett.
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