(PHOTO: PBA Executive Board Member Mike Kenny and his daughter, Madison, drag out the last load.) The Rye PBA has delivered for Santa. Rye's men and women in blue – with your help – are going to make the holidays a little bit brighter with seven "washing machine sized" box loads of donated toys that have been delivered to the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. It's a great achievement in the midst of a lousy economy.
In fact, after Sergent Lou Oliver sent MyRye.com the email below about the final stats of the program, he sent an update reporting "I thought we were done, but someone came to HQ Saturday and LOADED the box to the rim, so we actually had to make one more trip to Westy's for a drop off."
Here is Oliver's full report:
"The last drop off of toys for this year was made to the Toys for Tots collection point by Rye PBA members on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009. The Rye PBA wants to extend its heartfelt thanks to all that dropped off items this year. 2009 was the second year that we have participated in the US Marine Corp Reserve "Toys for Tots" program. Getting an early start this year allowed us to provide the residents with a conduit to this worthy cause and they stepped up big.
(PHOTO: PBA Lead Toys for Tots officer, Dave Casale looks over the last load for 2009.)
All in all, our members delivered six "washing machine sized" box loads of toys that concerned residents dropped at our collection locations. The age range of items dropped off spanned the spectrum of young to older children. We even received a top of the line Playstation PS3 that will be picked up by Westchester Social Services and given to a family in their program. After conferring with Toys for Tots coordinator, Lu Caldara, we contacted Westchester County Social Services when he determined the Toys for Tots program could not effectively deliver such an item to any one participant.
In addition to the incredibly generous toy donations, we did collect several checks made out to the Marine Corp Reserve, at this time I do not have a final dollar figure.
Thank you for your help in getting the message out to the residents.
Regards,
Sgt. Lou Olivier"
