The U.S. Marine Corps Reserves Bryan County Toys for Tots/Durant Lions Club Toy Box giveaway Dec. 20 was a success with numerous families served by the annual event.
Lion Brian Bond is the Bryan County coordinator for Toys for Tots, and he said the program serves all the county.
“We sent out lists to all of the schools, so we’ve got all of the county schools involved, and then we sign up at the library,” Bond said. “We had 1,350 kiddos pre-signed up this year. It’s about 800 families total that was taken care of. “This year, they really stepped up on our donations and things. The Okie Toy Run ladies raised a lot of money this year and went out and spent about 20-30 grand on some bicycles, TVs and some gaming chairs that were a hundred dollars apiece.”
According to Bond, Toys for Tots limits what can be spent on toys, but there are no limits on what is donated.
“So, they were able to take their money and go out and buy some of the higher-end stuff for the older kids who we always struggle with,” Bond said. “We’ve got a really good selection of toys this year. Great volunteers this year. Everything went really smooth. The community’s been very supportive as always. I think probably total, we purchased between the Toys for Tots and the other groups probably around $30 to $40,000 worth and then we probably had about that much donated as well.” Bond credited local motorcyclists for raising money to buy toys. One group raised $55,000, and another group collected $2,000. Bond said that was amazing considering the weather on the day of the motorcycle rides.
“The two different ones with Holly’s (Means) group and Lori Jo’s (Townsend) group and both of them did phenomenal,” Bond said. “We’re excited about that and like I said, we’re able to take that money and increase the quality of the toys that we’re able to provide for them.”
He said the morning of the toy giveaway that they had great help and everything was going smoothly. There is money leftover that will be used next Christmas.
“Generally, what we do is we spend what we raised the year before,” Bond said. “That way, we kind of know and we’ve always worked off that principle. The good thing about these guys doing it, used to, we would send out letters from the Lions Club because Toys for Tots can’t actually solicit cash donations. The Lions Club would do that, and we would send out letters to the community. That was a big cost and somewhat of a job. With them doing what they are now, we’re not even sending out donation letters.”
According to Bond, there are still people who make donations to the program every year in addition to what the motorcycle groups collect.
“So many people throughout the community get asked for donations for multiple different events, multiple different causes,” Bond said. “So, with them able to raise that money for us and donate it back, it helps a lot of our labor that they’re able to take care of and they do a phenomenal job of that. Both of them at the event raised a lot of toys and a lot of money and that will set us up for next year. So next year, we’ll be able to do bigger and better things.”
The toy giveaway is a partnership with the Marine Reserves and the Durant Lions Club.
“There are several other groups here that help,” Bond said. “People First, we’ve got some people from Choctaw helping and obviously, we’ve got a couple highway patrolmen here helping, just a whole community to help. The group from the Okie Toy Run and Holly’s Toy Run, they bring in several volunteers. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be able to pull it off So, the Lions Club and the Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots are the main two, but then there’s multiple groups here that make this thing happen.”
The Marines provide boxes that are placed in different donations for people to drop off toys. They also sent a pallet of books, some of which were donated to the library.
Mark Swearengin is a longtime member of the Lions Club, and he said the event was originally handled by the Bryan County Bar Association which was primarily the spouses of attorneys in Bryan County. Approximately 25 years ago, it reached the point that the Bar Association needed help, and they asked for a civic club to take it over.
That’s when the Lions Club stepped in.
“Initially, two members of the Lions Club, that was myself and Dale Goad, we attended the final project that they put on for Toys for Tots,” Swearengin said. “We were impressed by it and came back and recommended that the Lions Club take it over. At some point, Brian Bond stepped up to be chairman of it and he’s our official designated Lions Club member who is actually involved with the Toys for Tots program through the Marine Corps and probably the biggest thing that has impacted it has been the two motorcycle groups that now do fundraising for it and they’ve taken it to a completely different level.”
Swearengin also said there are many local donors and people who write large checks.
“We’re trying to match the number of toys to the number of kids that need it is the goal,” Swearengin said.
According to Swearengin, news reports reveal that some of these programs have been discontinued throughout the nation.
“I think that’s probably due to the economy,” Swearengin said. “It makes it tougher to try to raise money and tougher for people to write checks to contribute and a number of the Toys for Tots programs have actually been shut down, so we’re thrilled that this continues to thrive as big as it is and we’ll discuss ways in the future to potentially have an even bigger impact than we do right now.”
Swearengin praised the motorcycle groups and others who have made the program get bigger each year with more and better toys and other items.
“I think there were like 40 bicycles or something, wow, and flat-screen TVs and things we wouldn’t be able to do just as the Lions Club,” Swearengin said.
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