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Toys For Tots 2008
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"IMPROVISE, ADAPT,
OVERCOME" MCL Detachment 336 had not been
active in Toys For Tots for a number of years as a detachment, in
large measure because of the difficulty meeting the
requirements of the Toys For Tots Foundation as a coordinator.
This placed the responsibility for the entire King County AO on the
Marine Reserves 4th Landing Support Battalion in Ft. Lewis. With all
their other missions and AO responsibilities, coordinating with 4th
LSB was difficult at best. Some of our members did collect toys and
bring them to the Seattle MEPS Warehouse each year, but this
was a sporadic and individual effort - desire and commitment
were far outweighed by the individuals logistical limitations.
These individuals were unable to meet
the demand and address the queries of the community: "who can
pick up our toys?", "where can we get toy barrels?", "are you
collecting toys?" "where can I donate money?", etc., and this just
did not look good for the Detachment nor the Marines Reserve Toys
For Tots program in King County. In other words, this was
UNSATISFACTORY. It just so happened that in 2007, one
of our Reserve Marine Det members became the Commanding Officer of
the Reserve 4th LSB. The Detachment Commandant and the 4th LSB CO
decided to do something about this unfortunate situation, but there
were issues to overcome - the first being that Reserve units have an
active duty component (I&I) that handles their day to day
operations, and it was to I&I, with it's separate command
structure, that the Toys For Tots coordination is assigned. The
second was that 4th LSB was deploying most of its forces late
in 2007 overseas, and consequently Toys For Tots was not going
to be one of I&I's higher mission priorities, nor was
there going to be much manpower available until late in 2008
when they returned from deployment. Consequently, the need for the
Detachment's participation was never greater, but the
ability to coordinate and plan was severely
hampered. And we were not sure how to go about this. The Detachment Commandant and Sr.
Vice Commandant investigated the legalities, discussed possibilities
with 4th LSB and I&I Command, and put a plan together - this
involved establishing the Redmond VFW as a collection site, a Toy
Run coordinated with the Marines Motorcycle Club, and a
key commitment from the local recruiters to allow the MCL to
coordinate other toy collection activities in the various
communities to insure we had the resources to collect and transport
toys before giving people collection boxes. We pulled out the stops to get
out the word that "we were on", secured a local storage unit,
and got to work. The MCL and MMC would hold a toy run on the 20th,
the VFW was publicised on the National Web Site as a collection
point. We spread the word via email and news bloggs and word of
mouth. Within a week MCL was moving toys
received at the VFW into local storage on an almost-daily
basis. We set up a curb-side toy collection station with
the Issaquah Masons for the 15th-17th of December. Between the
VFW and Masons, responding to Recruiter calls for other
collections centers on the eastside (Duval, Bellevue,
etc) we filled two storage units, and collected nearly
$4000 in monetary donations from VFW Members, American Legion Post
161, and local individuals and businesses. On Wednesday and Friday (17th and
19th) the MCL used most of that money to buy toys (until we
flat ran out of transport room). The remainder will stay in a
separate account and be used to get next year's toy effort up and
running and buy MORE toys - this year we had no resources to start
with. Thursday, Dec 18th, it started
snowing. Big time. This put the entire mission in doubt. More snow
to come on Friday night, and again on Sunday, and Monday, and
Wednesday before Christmas. We have one shot, and we do it
Saturday as planned or forget it - there was no schedule slip to
fall back to. We have to get the toys out of
storage and up onto the Bellevue plateau to the VFW post
on Friday, or ferget it. And that did not look good. Obviously
we were not going to have a motorcycle run on Saturday! We'll
be in "cages" (cars and trucks), if we can even pull that
off. First, however, we had to confirm that indeed the
warehouse WILL be open on Saturday. Running down I&I's phone
tree, we finally reached Sgt Blas at home and he confirmed that in
spite of the snow they will be there - families were supposed to
start arriving on Saturday to pick up toys. Well, the Marines kicked the Chinese
Army out of Korea in weather worse than this, so no excuses.
On Friday, in the snow, we managed to
get to the VFW Post, met the locksmith and got keys made (nobody in
the VFW who had keys could get out of their neighborhoods),
made a call and said "we were in" and shortly thereafter
Paro-Scientific down the street showed up with a truck full of
toys. After unloading their truck, off we went to Big 5 to buy
sporting goods (BBall gloves, balls, tennis and badmitten rackets,
skateboards, bikes, toy helicopters, as much as we could fit
into the 4x4 Suburban) and brought that back to the Post. That
afternoon some MCL and VFW members arrived and joined
forces to move the toys from storage about 8 miles away into
the main hall to stage for transport the next day (Dec 20th).
The VFW Honor Guard donated the use
of their bus, and Saturday morning, more people showed up with toys,
donations and to help. The Marines Motorcycle
Club, Brothers In Arms Motorcycle Club, and the Patriot
Guard Riders all showed up in cages, and along with VFW
members, pitched in with the MCL, filled the bus and several trucks
to capacity, and delivered the toys to the Marine Reserves warehouse
at MEPS in Seattle. We estimate more than $30,000 in toys
were delivered just from the collection efforts centered on the
VFW post alone. Not too shabby for a 3 week
operation!
Now, just wait to see what we do NEXT YEAR! | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Deployments/Missons | Hootch |
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We are
FULL
