LIHU‘E — The toys and contributions have been coming in, but with Christmas looming, Norberto Garcia of the Marine Corps League Kaua‘i said the Toys for Tots program is running short of its goal. People can make the difference in
LIHU‘E — The toys and contributions have been coming in, but with Christmas looming, Norberto Garcia of the Marine Corps League Kaua‘i said the Toys for Tots program is running short of its goal.
People can make the difference in helping the Marine Corps League, spearheading this year’s “Toys4Kaua‘i” program, Garcia said.
“We’ll be manning the Walmart and Big Kmart entrance collection sites from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. (today),” Garcia said. “(Today) is the last day we’ll be at the sites.”
With Christmas looming, he said the Toys4Kaua‘i is about 1,100 toys and about $2,000 shy of making its goal of trying to fulfill children’s Christmas requests.
Friday, the Salvation Army, Lihu‘e Corps, hosted its holiday family distributions and Major Mario Reyes said the Army was also shy of being able to fulfill its Christmas toy requests.
He said they were about a thousand toys short in the Toys for Tots program and more than 150 short in the Angel Tree program.
“For those we cannot fill the toy orders, we’re working with trying to provide them gift cards,” Reyes said at the distribution. “I’ve been on the phone with the Kmart to make arrangements for more gift cards.”
J.Q. Smith of the Marine Corps League said the shortage of toys is not because people are not giving.
“I had a guy come up to me and gave me a check for a thousand dollars,” Smith, who was manning the collection site outside Walmart, said. “There was another gentleman who said he was a Marine and gave a $500 contribution simply because the Marine Corps League was spearheading the project.”
Garcia agreed with Smith’s statement on people’s generosity.
“I was getting these boxes ready for this morning’s collections and set it out, empty on my porch so they would be ready in the morning,” Garcia said. “This morning, when I went to get the boxes, I almost fell backwards because overnight, someone had deposited toys in the box.”
Garcia said the Marine Corps League is getting help from the Kapa‘a High School Jr. ROTC program in manning the collection sites at both Walmart and Kmart stores.
“They’re the only ones who have been volunteering,” Garcia said. “We’re really appreciative to the Kapa‘a Jr. ROTC for helping all of us.”
Garcia, being joined by a Hawaiian Santa, said people can drop by between 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. at either Walmart or Kmart today.
