A letter from soldier-father to son set path for Bob Loring
Published: Aug 10, 2006
On January 18, 1945 Robert H. Loring wrote a letter to his one year-old son, Bob. As a soldier-father stationed in Belgium, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, he wanted to tell his child his feelings without being melodramatic. The treasured letter provided a commission for his only child.
Near the letter’s end to a son he’d not yet met, the soldier-father wrote, “You are staring a race even with the rest and there is no handicap; the finish line is up to you. Over here we are all hoping that the track will be in better shape for you; I guess that’s why we are all here.” Thus, Loring grew up learning to be responsible for care of others. He experienced a loving family, always looking up to his father, who set the example for him.
As Loring sat in his library , filled with an inheritance of books from his father and an uncle, that any avid book hound might sigh over, he recalls how before he enlisted in the Marine Corp, he studied business at Kentucky Wesleyan College. After his military stint, he reentered college to study Community Psychology. “I’m applying that to what I’m doing now,” he stresses. Loring’s name is well known in the east and central Pasco area with Toys for Tots.
Toys for Tots, and spin offs of that program, are his passion. Get him started and he can’t stop, he cares deeply about kids in need. The Christmas drives to supply kids with toys means much to him yet he also saw a year-around need that pulled at his heartstrings. And getting more of the community involved is his continual goal.
He says, “The perfect distribution for the Marines is to run out of families before we run out of toys. That happened one year in 2001. That’s when I realized we needed to help year around to supply more than toys.”
His praise glows for area service clubs, churches, and a wide range of community help that not only supply the Christmas program of Toys or Tots but with supplying other items, as the recent community call for needy area students to receive school supplies. He also praises his wife, Claudia, who works as a nurse so that he can pursue the needs of area kids.
Loring explains that the Toys for Tots and the spin off programs supported by the community are not done haphazardly, “All families are screened, partnering with the school system. The schools know the family’s needs. We make the effort to make everyone feel important. This shows the community we have credibility, as we put a face on poverty.
Loring’s blue eyes grow intense, his hands move swiftly, as he emphasizes that he took the example of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, when he took over the Toys for Tots program “ I figured if I started painting the fence and I was having a good time doing it, that others would want to join the process! Now at Christmastime,” head elf Loring notes, “I’ll field 200-250 volunteers. It’s an easy way to give and to serve as a volunteer. We now have five captains, plus co-captains in the east Pasco area. They’re the best of the best! We couldn’t do this without solid partnership. It creates a moment when someone can help someone with their child. It refreshes the spirit.”
With a punctuated voice, Loring relates, “The thing that makes the hair stand up on my neck is when people come and give or volunteer and says, ‘This is payback for helping me.’ That’s when I say the program works!”
He emphasizes, “The volunteers come up with all kinds of programs.” He points to Laura Quintana, who is now a college student. She got involved with a Rotary Interact Club as a high school student and suggested that teenagers also needed gifts. Her idea is dubbed Trinkets for Teens. This project earned her gold star status with the Girl Scouts.
More recently Loring’s passion for helping kids, who need assistance, spilled over into a larger effort, when he developed an idea of teaching a course to train people in the community to help develop intervention programs. He went to Pasco Hernando Community College with his idea for Community Organization: Theory and Practice. College administration saw the merit of such an undertaking. Loring starts teaching this once a week, 24-hour non-credit evening course, 6:30-8:30, on September 5 with the classes running through November 7.
He says that students especially will be targeted from service clubs, high schools and students who live in Habitat for Humanity homes. But the course is one for anyone in the community.
Loring beams as he says he’s considering asking Quintana, “To co-teach the course with me. I’m hoping this course will set a stage course for Social Work. This is a laboratory that will launch into a research component, to teach self-sufficiency.”
Of his passion, Loring notes, “It’s a calling. I looked at the situation and I saw an opportunity to help people. If we do our job right, the children who are helped will be the future leaders of our community. We will build a better community together. My dream is this, someday we’re going to have a center for community studies right here to develop leaders. Education is the answer.”
The letter written 61 years ago, by Loring’s father, continues to be read in ongoing community service.
(Contacts: (352)-588-4230, fax (352)-588-5353, RedBobbin@tampabay.rr.com or www.toysfortotspasco.org )
