Thank You, St. Louis Region! We surprised the Marines again...
St. Louis Region again showed the holiday spirit lives strong in the Region as our members again piled the toys high on the Marine Corps Toys for Tots donation tables at our Christmas Gala at Westborough Country Club. For several decades, St. Louis Region PCA has been strong support of the Marine Corps Auxiliary’s efforts to collect and dis- tribute toys to charities in Southeastern Missouri and Southern Illinois.
Once again, this year, the local Marine Corps battalion took over a vacant grocery store in Chesterfield Commons - across I-64/40 from the Porsche St. Louis Service Center in the Chesterfield Valley. The store served as their distribution warehouse where the donations were received, sorted and distributed to the charities who had filed requests for toys in October and November.
Within 48 hours of our Christmas Gala, the toys were delivered to the Chesterfield collection center. Last year, the Marines brought several shopping carts to receive our donations. The Marines were surprised as our toy donations filled cart after cart after cart. This year, the Marine at the receiving desk dispatched a couple of Marines with a pallet and pallet jack to retriever our donations. Once again, the Marines had underestimated our donations as the bags of our donations overflowed the pallet requiring extra Marines to carry the overflow into the warehouse.
As our donations were being rolled into the center, other Marines emptied the toys onto tables and sorted them into bins according to age and gender of the expected recipients. Meanwhile, a second group of Marines were walking among the toy bins, each Marine gathering up toys which would be appropriate for the ages of the boys and girls listed on the charity request. Those toys were carried over to the other side of the store where a third group of Marines were placing the toys in boxes and bags to ready them for pickup. The boxes and bags were loaded onto pallets and the original request forms were attached to the pallets to await pickup by the charity. Pallets lined the walls of the vacant grocery waiting for pickup by the charities which had requested gifts for this holiday season. Dozens of Marine volunteers were sorting...selecting and packing the toy do- nations to delivery while a fourth group of Marines were rolling loaded pallets out the front door and placing the boxes and bags into waiting trucks and vans. It was clear that the officers supervising this beehive of activity had this mission planned to the most minute detail. The loss of a week to accomplish their mission may have sped up the timetable, but these Marines knew their mission and were ready to accomplish their goals. This year, the ‘Santa’ responsible for the gifts under the tree of many children wore camouflage - not red and white.
These toys go to organizations and church groups throughout the area which is basically the same Southeastern Missouri and Southern Illinois area served by St. Louis Region PCA. Your donations brightened the holidays of the less fortunate children who might just be our neighbors across town. Thank you for your generosity. St. Louis Region PCA has been a Toys for Tots supporter for decades, and our long-term generous support does not go unnoticed. Thank you for helping us to carry on our legacy of making the holidays a little brighter to the children of our Region!