Tis The Season

[pegwinn]

Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is on us. It's amazing how in no time flat we went from zero to shopping. Stores opened on Black Friday as early as 0400 local time and my seventeen year old kid had to be at work at 0630. She personally made over 13K at the register of the little specialty store she works at. She personally saw the lines of people who literally camped out at WalMart (across the street) in freezing weather to catch the 0500 sale. And all the while, the background music was playing "Here comes Santa Clause". Oh what a world we live in.

I'm not complaining mind you. It's been that way longer than I have been alive. But, every year I react differently. This year I am leaning more toward trying to demonstrate that Christmas can be about peace, love, family, and celebration without going into debt.

I seriously would like for everyone who reads this to please contact your <a href="http://www.mfr.usmc.mil/Units/">local Marine Corps Reserve Unit</a> and ask how you can help with the <a href="http://www.toysfortots.org/about_toys_for_tots/toys_for_tots_program/default.asp">Toy's for Tots program</a>. In a nutshell, T4T is a program designed to help kids. It doesn't matter your views on poor folks/welfare/poverty or Republican/Democrat. It doesn't matter if you believe that folks make thier own situation or not. <em>Not one kid I've ever met chose to be poor enough that Mom and Dad could not buy a toy for Christmas.</em>

There are going to be some readers who will say that any charity program is a scam. I tend to agree in a lot of cases. But, during my career in the Marines, I personally worked on Toy drives a total of six times. As the Active Duty personnel assigned to keep the reserve center moving and grooving, it was one of our highlights. In this case the work was tough, but the reward came when we actually handed out the toys. So, even if the program has or had issues at the national level, I can personally vouch for it at the local level.

So, here is your mission...... Locate, Close With, and Acquire as many new, unwrapped, unopened toys as you can and get with the Marines in your area to help make Christmas a brighter time one kid at a time.

Semper Fi,
Top Gwinn

 

[82Marine89]

Just donated a toy yesterday at my local Wally World. There were two young Lance Corporals standing there in their Blues and people were coming up and thanking them for their service.

 

[pegwinn]

Just donated a toy yesterday at my local Wally World. There were two young Lance Corporals standing there in their Blues and people were coming up and thanking them for their service.

Out-freaking-standing. In spite of what many think of WalMart, I distinctly remember them openly and generously supporting the program. The wives of the unit normally were given shopping spree that ranged from 3-5 K. Thanks.

 

[jillian]

I take my son over to Floyd Bennett Field every year so he can make HIS donation to Toys For Tots. It's a good reminder to him that not everyone is as lucky as he is and is also a way for him to say thank you.

 

[Foxfyre]

Just be careful how you make the donations. Make sure they are received by an agency authorized to receive them. There are a lot of scams in operation out there. Also the military cannot accept cards or gifts addressed to "any marine" or "any soldier" or members of their family because of the very real danger of malicious sabotage. That is truly unfortunate. So whatever you donate, be sure it is unwrapped and handed to somebody authorized to receive it.

 

[Shogun]

My company usually sponsors a family via united way every year. We usually make quite an effort.


I kid you not, in high school I used to work the service desk of a local wal mart and we'd have a T4T box display at the door for poeple to put toys into. Well, the store manager would come by when it was getting full and insist that the toys in the box were stolen and would put them back on the shelves. This guy was a total bastard.