Elf Esteem - 2008
Toys for Tots of East Pasco – Report to the Community
By Bob Loring

It is with great delight that I’m able to report to our caring community that Toys for Tots of East Pasco has met its target objective for this holiday season. With toys still being distributed right through Christmas Eve, our program will surpass our stated goal of providing toys for over 4000 deserving Tots here in East and Central Pasco County.

Back in October, with the then raising gas prices coupled with a looming economic recession, I put the vital question to all of our capable Toys for Tots area captains. Should we, in fact, reduce the number of families we intended to register, or should we boldly leap into the unknown and increase the number of children we intend to serve? The answer was clear and unanimous, we agreed to increase the number of registration forms we would circulate throughout the community.

The challenge was enormous, and frankly it took my breath away. In fact I spent many restless nights worrying about it. Nevertheless I took comfort in the fact that in my ten years as Head Elf here in East Pasco, our community had always risen to the challenge. I knew that we could, indeed, achieve our lofty goal if we could only get our caring community’s vigorous support.

Our friends in the media made a huge difference. With the support of the local press we were able to get our ‘message of need’ out to the community. We planned to alert our neighbors that, this year, we would need their full cooperation. Toys were needed in record numbers and this year, every toy would count. We received massive media publicity concerning our December ‘Letter Carriers’ toy drive; we needed to advise the community the of our toy drop box locations. Importantly, we also needed to publicize our various Toys for Tots toy raising activities. And, thankfully, our media friends stepped up; and did not let us down.

Of course, Toys for Tots is a fully ‘grass roots’ program. It takes thousands of individual folks making the decision to first, purchase a toy(s), and second to find a convenient way of delivering them to us. This occurred beyond our wildest dream. The toys poured in and mail carriers, firefighters, and many committed community elves fetched in the bounty. Our toy collection for many ‘at risk’ children continued to grow.

By Friday, December 19th, all our collected items, dolls, balls, books & toys were assembled at our five distribution sites. There they were carefully sorted and displayed by hundreds of deputy elves; all was ready for our distribution day. On the following, Saturday, our elves acted as personal shoppers for over two thousand registered families. And, dear friends, our distribution went off with a flourish; and we were all truly filled with the Spirit of Christmas.

On Christmas morning thousands of deserving Pasco children will awake to find that Santa has provided toys and other needed items under their Christmas tree. Our good Food for Tots friends also provided each family with a huge box of food stuffs and my Rotary brethren assisted us by providing an abundant amount of socks, underwear, disposable dippers and dental hygiene items for many of our precious children.

This year, we welcome some new friends to our ever growing community supporters. Barnes and Nobles worked hard to provide over 2000 new books for our kids and a benefit cook out was held by the local race driver, David Retimann. Again this holiday season, our friends at Smokehouse Rodeo held a toy drive for our Tots. Also, we wish to thank several old partners, Philips & Jordan, The Red Hot Tootsie of Tampa Bay Golf Club, and the Zephyrhills Women of the Moose for filling our coffers with toys gathered at their holiday events. We also wish to express our thanks Metro Storage, Heyl Trucking and R.E. Garrison, Inc, and the Zephyrhills and County Fighters for assisting us to gather, move, and store our collected toys.

But the real heroes of this first-rate holiday story are the people of Pasco County. With out your cheerful support we would not have achieved our lofty goal of providing toys for an additional one thousand ‘at risk’ children.

Hopefully, next year, our country and our community will have recovered from the bitter effects of America’s economic down turn. However, no matter what the circumstance Toys for Tots of East Pasco stands ready to met any challenge, face any hardship, and cheerfully serve the needs of Pasco’s poverty bound Tots. Always thinking ahead for next year’s effort, I’m currently negotiating a plan to include a needed shoe program for our needy Tots.

As my boss Santa once joyfully observed:
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!”