Toys for Tots distributes toys

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) -Saturday morning, the Marine Corps League distributed toys for the 18th annual Toys for Tots drive.

For the past two months, white collection boxes have been sitting in businesses and schools across the Mankato area, and Saturday the collected toys were distributed to roughly 1100 families, providing Christmas gifts for over 3400 children.

“Today was basically a carbon copy of the last eighteen years. We had a mass chaos in the morning, there was a huge line outside the armory. Volunteers showed up on time, everything worked out good. We literally went through almost everything we collected today, which is kind of unusual, but it’s how we want to end it. We don’t want to store a lot of toys,” said Bernie Thompson of the Marine Corps League.

The drive brings in between ten-thousand and twelve-thousand toys each year, and every one is given out to families who otherwise wouldn’t have anything to give this holiday season.

The drive has been a staple in the community for eighteen years, and has continued despite harsh weather and a pandemic being thrown their way. Organizers said that they’re just happy to be back where they belong.

“We are back to normal. You know, last year we were in a small, you know we had to re-package everything. I was was talking to Matt DuRose here yesterday, the public safety guy, I said ‘Matt I’m so happy that we’re not, you know, where we were last year’ because it created a huge cluster, if you will, on Madison Avenue, a lot of people were displaced because of it,” Thompson celebrated.

In Mankato, Aaron Stuve, KEYC News Now.

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