Pilot plans to light Toys for Tots afterburners

John Durkin flew F/A-18 Hornets for most of 30 years, much of the last 20 while commanding a Marine Corps Reserve flight squadron based near Atlanta.

Never mind that Durkin still regards taking up an F/A-18, a singularly exquisite war bird, to be a peerless experience, or that he marvels that the government cut him a regular paycheck for the pleasure. Those caveats notwithstanding, anyone who spent 30 years in the nation's uniform has his obligation to his countrymen stamped paid-in-full.

Then again, the history of America tingles with tales of exceptional people wielding overdeveloped senses of duty that accrued to the national benefit. Retired Col. John Durkin is among those exceptional Americans.

Here, Durkin quotes Ronald Reagan: "Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem."

But what, to paraphrase Bing Crosby in "White Christmas," do you do with a Marine when he stops being a Marine?

Durkin has found his mission. And he didn't have to go halfway around the world to find it.

Lacking an icy Delaware River to cross, Barbary Coast pirates to rout or a remote Pacific outcropping to conquer, Durkin has assumed command of a dicey and potentially harrowing - if not outwardly dangerous - enterprise: organizing and carrying out the Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots strategy in west Pasco County.

Says Durkin, "I'm just doing my duty."

The retired colonel is accepting a handoff from former director E.J. Koczur, a retired Connecticut police officer who oversaw a broad expansion of the program on Pasco's west side. Durkin says he's inheriting "a great team that makes incredible things happen."

Collection sites, distribution centers, coordinators and assistants: check, check, check and double-check. There are certain things, Durkin says, that "I don't have to worry about."

This does not mean the old fighter pilot doesn't have a plan to light afterburners. As half of "The Topgun Team" at Prudential Best Realty in New Port Richey - wife and business partner Lisa Durkin occupies the corner office - John Durkin knows about making contacts, cultivating relationships and driving competition.

To that end, he has some thoughts about ... bicycles.

Durkin is convinced the generosity of his west Pasco neighbors will see to it that his chapter of Toys for Tots can adequately provide for the 2,000 families and 8,000 children likely to sign up through the state's Department of Children & Families (although he shares the concern of T4T organizers everywhere about providing appropriately for "tweens" - kids ages 9 through 12, whom there will be more about in a moment).

Still, Durkin laments, "We are chronically short of bicycles." To that end, he has declared the debut of this whopping mouthful: the West Pasco Board of Realtors Toys for Tots Bicycle Challenge.

"It's a stretch to ask (individual donors) to spend $100 on a bike and a helmet," Durkin says, "but if we can get each brokerage into the competition, we might get 80 bikes. If it catches on, maybe we can get some to donate 30, or 20, or 10."

John Durkin has a dream: "In a perfect world, we'd have one bike for every family. Nothing says Christmas like a shiny new bike under the tree Christmas morning."

Big dream. Big challenge. That's why, next year, he anticipates a bank challenge, a restaurant challenge, an insurance company challenge, a physicians center challenge and a construction trades challenge. "Each of the winners will get a plaque," Durkin says. "A plaque they can display all year, and bragging rights."

Here's hoping that will be sufficient. Meanwhile, the 2009 Toys for Tots season kicks off officially today. For Durkin's volunteers, that means a shopping spree at the Port Richey Toys R Us (using money donated by the corporation) conducted by Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts - tweens who will be prowling the aisles for peer-appropriate items.

The festivities begin at 5 p.m. Wheels up at 5:01.