HOW TO HELP:
What: Toy packingWhere: 1815 E. Main Street, inside Forgotten Child Fund warehouseWhen: Saturday and SundayMore info: Call 423-362-0608 or email t4tchattanooga@gmail.comSource: Toys For Tots
Local Marines need help packing toys today and Sunday as they make a final push to give away several thousand toys to needy children across the Tennessee Valley this Christmas.
The Marines, who are running a local Toys for Tots campaign, have for weeks collected donated toys from 133 regional drop-off points.
Now it's time for the toys to be packed up and shipped to various nonprofit organizations, which will distribute them to between 5,000 and 7,000 children, said Sgt. Donovan Walters, this year's Toys for Tots coordinator. Each child will receive three toys, a stuffed animal and a stocking, he said.
"It's about the kids for me, that's it," Walters said. "All I care about is making sure kids get toys. That's my focus, and everyone has the same goal and the same mission."
He's running the local operation, which is part of the national Toys for Tots nonprofit organization run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Across the nation, nearly 700 communities will have local Toys for Tots campaigns, according to the organization's website. The operation started in 1947.
The Chattanooga toy-packing operation is headquartered in a warehouse on East Main Street - in the same building as the Forgotten Child Fund, a Chattanooga nonprofit that also hands out toys to children at Christmas. Donovan said Toys for Tots gives some of its toys to the Forgotten Child Fund for distribution.
In that warehouse Wednesday, Walters and Cpl. Christian Durrah sorted toys by gender and age, packing them into boxes and bags and loading them onto wooden pallets. Walters juggled two phones, wielding calls about toys as he wheeled pallets of boxes around.
"It's pretty stressful," he said, "but I know what it's like to wake up without Christmas. And no kid deserves to know what that's like. I want to do my part so kids don't have to go through that."
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas. Follow @ShellyBradbury.