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Partly Cloudy Extending Toys for Tots as a year-round event
The Paramount in Huntington was packed on July 7 with members from several Chambers of Commerce, including East Meadow’s, Toys for Tots, and the Long Island Business Council. They were there to launch a new initiative for needy children, to make Toys for Tots a year-round event.
After an opportunity to network, the event officially began with Gunnery Sergeant John Sardine, the Toys for Tots coordinator for Long Island, leading the presentation of the flags and the Pledge of Allegiance.
“It’s an honor to be here today and to be working with everybody,” he said. “It’s great that we’re getting together today to make things happen for the community.”
The new Toys for Tots initiative aims to collect toys year-round to distribute to disadvantaged children for other holidays aside from Christmas.
“I am honored to be here,” said Frank Camarano, Nassau County Chamber of Commerce’s first vice president and a former president of the East Meadow Chamber. “I am glad to see our organizations coming together for this great event for Toys for Tots. We are one Long Island.”
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran shared her message by way of a video. “It’s amazing work and I was happy to be a small part of it,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, so thank you for showing up and doing what you do.”
Suffolk Long Island Business Council Chair Robert Fonti called the new initiative “Toys for Tots 2.0.” Expanding the program had been on the minds of those involved since the winter, he said.
“This past winter when we were collecting toys some of the toys were really impressive,” Suffolk County Legislator Rob Calarco said. “We wondered, how do we make this year-round, how do we help year-round.”
Toys for Tots is a program that is run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve, which collects and distributes toys during the weeks before Christmas for needy children. The program was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks in Los Angeles, California. According to the Toys for Tots website, the first toy was a handmade doll.
The organization was informal when it began, Calarco said. It wasn’t until 1991 that the Secretary of Defense authorized the Marine Corps to recognize and work with the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.
“This is going to give us the opportunity to collect toys year-round and make them available to our children for all other important holidays such as their birthdays, their graduations, their bar and bat mitzvahs,” Calarco said. “It’s an opportunity for us to make sure they are celebrating their lives because some families simply don’t have the opportunity to provide that themselves.”
To make this event possible, chambers all over L.I. are partnering with government officials. Toy for Tots accepts unwrapped gifts from anyone. Toy collections will be set up throughout the island. Needy children will be located by way of a partnership with schools.
“I want to see boxes in all of our stores in East Meadow,” Christine Mooney, executive secretary for the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce said. “I think this is such a great program with all communities coming together. East Meadow is a very giving community.”
Numerous empty boxes were made available at the event for business owners to take back to their stores.
“In East Meadow, we are going to attempt to support the council and support Frank [Camarano] by putting these Toys for Tots boxes in brick and mortars,” Richie Krug Jr., the president of the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce said. “We are also going to be supporting it through online efforts, with our website and social media.”
