I love Toys for Tots, I have been a volunteer for them for the past 4 years and I love collecting toys for the little ones. But some people out there just suck. If you don’t want to donate, that’s fine, don’t but stop putting you trash in the donation boxes.
I have five pick-up locations this year. Three of them have been OK, we haven’t gotten a lot from them this year, but people are donating at these locations.
The other two are fucking awful. In the first one, I’ve gotten used, dirty stuffed animals, destroyed Barbie dolls and a broken, children’s tape recorder. The second one is even worse, it’s totally loaded with garbage, real garbage, crushed paper cups, napkins, the contents of an ashtray, pieces of gum and other crap. If someone wanted to put a toy in there, the toy would be messed up in seconds.
It’s bullshit ! The box is very clearly marked as Toys for Tots, it’s got big posters on it and above it and there are trash cans right outside the door of the place. What kind of lazy jackasses do this stuff ?
We had a woman here in our area steal from Toys for Tots. She went to at least two different locations and took everything out of the boxes, saying she was a volunteer for the organization. She wasn’t. Fortunately, she was arrested. I have to wonder what kind of lowlife does shit like this.
As for your trash problem, dragongirl, can you speak to the management of that store? Perhaps moving the box to a place where an employee can keep an eye on it and stop folks from using the thing as a trash can will help.
I like the Toys For Tots bin in my hometown mall. It is usually guarded by two Marines. ~grins~
I doubt there’s any trash in that one.
Seriously, I can’t imagine what kind of asshole would do something like that, or what type of jerk steals from needy kids at Christmas. It’s sad and it’s pathetic to think that a guard for a Toy Drop for needy kids is necessary.
Well yeah, some people do. But many are generous too. I run a toys-for-tots drive with my department. I match dollar for dollar up to 300 dollars. We easily made that and more. All told, I have about a thousand dollars worth of toys collected. Most of them good ones too. OK, the CD rack might not technially be a toy, but the man’s heart was in the right place.
What kind of stuff is good for Toys for Tots? Since I’ve no kids of my own I don’t know anything about toys right now. I’m looking at getting around $100 worth tonight if I get a chance, and part of this is for the Secret Santa here. I really don’t want to get crap, but want to get stuff for as many kids as I can.
TFT gets a lot of stuff for babies. For Girls get dolls, Barbies, Sweet Streets are what my daughter likes this year. Boys get matchbox car race sets and Action figures. A lot of people forget about the older kids and we always run short of things for them, walkmen, curling irons, handheld games and board games and popular books are always good.
That’s cool, but I’d rather it be guarded by commandos who are cleverly disguised as giant stuffed animals or something. Someone dumps their soda in the box, and the giant Elmo springs to action, raising a concealed gun, and BLAM!
Let that hit the news a few times, and there won’t be trash in any of the TFT boxes–not just the guarded ones.
I donated to both Toys for Tots here at my work, and the Caring Tree that was affiliated with the local Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center. Thankfully, the collection areas for those were inside someone’s office, so no trash could be placed in the boxes.
The Toys for Tots program got a large set of Magnetix toys, for a little kid who likes to build stuff. The Caring Tree that I picked off belonged to a young retarted boy (15 years old) who wanted only a sweatshirt from his favorite football team. It was a wish I gladly fulfilled.
These programs help kids who don’t have much opportunity to get Christmas presents, whether because their family is poor or because they don’t have a family. Anyone who shits on a kid’s Christmas is a lowlife scum who deserves to be stomped by reindeer.
I may not have kids, I may not want kids, and I may not really want to hang out with kids, but I do like to make at least a couple of them happy by getting them a (sometimes the only they’ll get) Christmas present. Why? Because they deserve it. They deserve to be excited and happy and filled with joy on their holiday, whether it be Christmas, Hannukkah, Kwaanza, Yule or Festivus. Fuck anyone who tries to ruin that experience by dumping trash in a collection bin or stealing toys. Fuck them with a chainsaw in their mean, nasty, horrid asses.
I hope the mods don’t think I was advocating actual chainsaw anal probes. I just hate it when people can’t be considerate of those who try to do a good deed for others.
Ex-Marine here. Good on you dragongirl! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I’ve helped with the TFT for many years and it always does my heart good to see the outpouring of toys for the kids. I know many places that collect don’t keep the barrels very well monitored. But that shouldn’t keep anyone from donating anything they can. Doesn’t have to be a lot to make a kid’s holiday special. As for the wastes of skin that would toss their trash in, or even worse, steal the goods from these little kids, there’s not much you can do, but they are who they are, and everybody around them knows it too.
Note to self: DO NOT get on catsix’s bad side.
Satch
My husband likes to go to Toys R Us and pick out the toy that has the most choking hazard potential or eye poking fun. Before I get flamed, I’ll say that he’s mostly kidding. He thinks some toys are obviously more fun than others, and he remembers what he liked to play with. Last year he bought a giant GI Joe Jeep complete with an air powered rocket launcher. I hope the kid that got it thought it was as cool as we did.
We don’t. I took the advice and went to Toy R US last night and bought a bunch of toys. I talked to one of the women at the store and she helped me and my girlfriend pick out stuff. I swear when I saw the toys for boys my eyes were as big as dinner plates. They have the coolest shit and I wish I had the idea of opening the boxes to “make sure it works”.
Now excuse me while I find a place to drop off my toys so that I don’t open the box!
