I thought I couldn’t be prouder of my boy, and then, yesterday, he couldn’t talk.  He was driving.  He was collecting toys for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. As much as I’m struggling to come to terms with my baby being all grown-up, and a Marine to boot, I’m thrilled to pieces that he gets to participate and lend a helping-hand to such a fabulous program.  Early in our marriage, when we were young, both working, with four growing boys, Toys for Tots helped us give our kids a real Christmas.  I’m beyond pleased that it has now come full circle and my son is the Marine making another boys Christmas dream come true.

I looked up the website for those of you that are interested as well, and I spent a little time reading about it.  I feel I’ve always “known” it was there, but I’ve never truly known how it came to be.  It came to be from a very small realization, there was no program to get toys to  needy kids, to the huge, massive undertaking it is today:

Toys for tots Began in 1947, when Major Bill Hendricks, USCR and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The idea came form Bill’s wife, Diane. In the fall of 1947, Diane crafted a homemade doll and asked Bill to deliver the doll to an organization, which would give it to a needy child at Christmas. When Bill determined that no agency existed, Diane told Bill that he should start one. He did. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign.