Toys for Tots Pasco Report to the Community, November 2008

Here in East and Central Pasco County, our Toys for Tots campaign continues to accelerate with spectacular velocity. This year with our economy sputtering, the demand for our services is growing, as I type. That coupled with the likely-hood that our toy donations may diminish, we are faced with a heart-wrenching dilemma. Should we decrease the number of families we register? Or, should we attempt to meet this unanticipated challenge by increasing our registrations? October of this year, I put this question to our local Toys for Tots area captains. And they accepted the challenge. We unanimously agreed to attempt to assist additional families this holiday season.

Now, my neighbors and friends, the ball is in your court. For, Toys for Tots is a fully “grass-root” effort. If you continue to cheerfully support us we will succeed; however, if you do not respond by donating a toy, or toys, to our program, we will “without-doubt” fail to meet our lofty goal of providing a Merry Christmas for over 4000 deserving Tots.

A short recap of our program follows: We select our deserving families with the able assistance of public school counselors and our friends at Premier Community HealthCare, Inc. These folks have personal contact with the families we enroll and they decide which families are in “most need.” We have five local community distribution sites. Each located near a targeted poverty pocket. So we know two things: 1. We serve deserving Pasco families and, 2. Each local community, Dade City, Zephyrhills, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel and the Tri-Community of Lacoochee will have its own toy distribution. And, thanks to various service originations and faith based groups, our deserving families will also receive socks, underwear, disposable dippers, toothbrushes, and again this year, we plan to provide a food box for each registered family.

To participate in our effort, we located many toy drop boxes throughout the community. The locations of the boxes can be found on our web site: www.toysfortotspasco.org, click the “Toy Drop-off Location” button… then merely click on the name of the town nearest to you; and there you may locate a drop box located near by.

Importantly, again this year, we will hold our “Letter Carriers” Toy Drive. On Saturday, December 6th simply place a new-unwrapped toy next to your mail box. Your participating letter carrier will cheerfully bring your donated toy(s) directly to us. I need to stress that on this critical day our program collects nearly one-half the toys we collect through all of our other various toy collection measures.

Literally thousands of people and many organizations stand ready to support our valiant efforts. But we need your precious toy donations to make it all work. And, as I noted before, this year our program will be seriously tested. With so very many new families seeking our help, we cannot…; we must not fail. I firmly believe, and pray, that if we can assist these newly disenfranchised families, they will soon rebound, adapt, overcome and return to form a vibrant new American middle class.

This year Toys for Tots of East Pasco and our brother program on the west side of the county will need your valued assistance. Help us to help many of your recently stressed neighbors. I know that you will; this caring community has always responded to our challenge and this year, I pray, will be no different.

A friend of the program suggested that Toys for Tots of East Pasco request a federal bailout; noting that the federal government managed to get us into this economic mess. But, I quickly rejected this intriguing idea. First, I don’t believe in government bailouts, and secondly, I believe that addressing poverty is a local community responsibility and challenge. I firmly believe that, we together, can ‘level the playing field’ for our precious children now living in abject poverty.

So as Tiny Tim once observed: “God Bless Us, Everyone!”

Bob Loring – Head Elf
Toys for Tots of East Pasco
www.toysfortotspasco.org