Toys for Tots needs help to meet metro Atlanta goal

By H.M. Cauley

For the AJC

Attention holiday elves: Santa needs you to dig a little deeper to make the holiday happier for more than 700,000 Atlanta-area children.

With one week to go, Toys for Tots, the annual campaign conducted by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, is falling behind in its goal to collect new toys for needy kids across 17 metro counties. Dec. 22 is the last day volunteers will turn the gifts over to churches, schools, shelters, and Boys and Girls Clubs that will distribute them to the youngsters, from babies to teens.

“The need is astronomical,” said Teresa Wilhite, the area program coordinator. “We’ve probably distributed about 250,000 toys at this point, but the number of requests is so much greater this year, we may have a hard time filling every one.”

Already this year, requests have surpassed last year’s 700,000 mark.

“We definitely expect to distribute more than that this year,” Wilhite said, “but we can’t give what we don’t have.”

Lawrenceville-based Streetwise, just one of the nonprofits working with Toys for Tots, is scrambling to find about 700 toys for the needy children it serves. That number is less than President Terry Powell would ideally like to have.

“Toys for Tots is a great organization, but they just don’t have enough to go around,” he said. “The need is worse now than it’s ever been, largely because of the economy. It’s sad because these toys mean a lot to these families.”

Despite the tight deadline, Wilhite isn’t panicking just yet.

“People do give at the last minute,” she said. “The majority of our toys often come in during the last seven days of our campaign.”

The donated, unwrapped gifts are sorted by age appropriateness, and some groups need more support than others, Wilhite pointed out.

“We typically run short of toys for girls ages 8 and up,” she said. “It’s a hard age group, but we welcome things like board games, bath sets, and arts and crafts kits. We had a good supply last weekend, but by Sunday afternoon, we were completely out.”

Toys for boys 11 to 14 are also in short supply. Footballs, basketballs, remote-control cars, MP3 players and hand-held games are a few of the items Wilhite would like to see donated.

There are several ways supporters can make contributions. The campaign’s Suwanee warehouse is open daily for drop-offs. Toys can also be placed in boxes at any Publix supermarket. And online financial donations will also help volunteers reach their goal.

“We never turn away money," Wilhite said. "If we’re short, we’ll go buy things to fill the orders we have.”

How to help
The Toys for Tots warehouse at 250 Horizon Drive in Suwanee is open daily for drop-offs. Donation boxes are also located in Publix supermarkets.
Financial contributions can be made through the campaign's website, www.atlantatoysfortots.com.
More information is available at 678-887-5179.