Havre Toys for Tots drive starts Monday

People in the Havre Area again have the opportunity to join a toy drive that has been running for more than half a century.

Edward Jones Investments Havre office has been a part of the U.S. Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots for the past two years and will be running its third annual Toys for Tots drive this year.

The toys will be given to children in the Havre area. There is a great need for toys for older children ages 12-18, local Edward Jones Financial Advisor Jennifer Tilleman said in an email to the Havre Daily News. The toys need to be new and unwrapped, she said. 

The drive will run from Monday, Nov. 30, to Monday, Dec. 14.

Local drop off locations are Independence Bank, Bergren Transmission, Pacific Steel & Recycling, Edward Jones Investments, Hi Line Rental, Havre Ford, Koefod Agency, Lodestar Land and Home, Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine Jerry Taylor, Fifth Avenue Christian Church and Holden’s Hot Wheels. 

Families in need of toys can contact the Salvation Army for applications. 

The U.S. Marine Corps has been running the Toys for Tots program throughout the United States since 1948. It was started in 1947 by Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Bill Hendricks who was inspired when his wife, Diane, asked him to deliver handmade dolls to an agency that supported children in need. Hendricks could not find such an organization, and his wife advised him to start one. Hendricks organized the program in the Los Angeles area that year.

After the first successful year in the LA area, with 5,000 toys donated and distributed, the Marine command directed all Marine Reserve sites to implement the Toys for Tots campaign, turning it into a national community action program in 1948.

Hendrick’s civilian job was director of public relations at Warner Brothers Studios, and he had many celebrity friends whom he asked to support the new program. Walt Disney designed the first Toys for Tots poster. Included in the poster was the three-car train that is now the Toys for Tots logo. 

The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation was established as a not-for-profit charity in 1991 to help run the Toys for Tots program. The foundation raises funds, purchases toys, provides promotional and support materials, manages all funds, educates the public and runs all day-to-day operations. 

The Marine Toys for Tots program distributes an average of 18 million toys to seven million less-fortunate children annually.