Three days before Christmas and Toys for Tots is struggling to meet demand, without the donations they need to help kids this holiday season. So, you know...Next time you're shopping, get a tiny toy for a buck or two and drop it in a Toys for Tots drop box. C'mon...a two dollar toy.
Lemme tell a little story.
When my boy was 3, he fell in love with one of my old Lego space men. One I had when I was a boy. One of the red ones with a little space helmet and a little oxygen tank on the back. Over the weeks the pieces of the Lego man fell away and got lost and all he had left, the very last piece, was the little oxygen tank. For days he played with that tiny piece of plastic pretending it was a rocket blasting off and carrying him around the house.
SHHHPPPEEEWWWWWWW...imagine a little boy running around the house with a teeny weeny
half inch Lego piece held between two tiny fingers. He disappeared into his imagination and flew around space at blinding speeds. The toy transcended a piece of plastic. Size and scale and form and function in the physical concept became incidental...it morphed in his mind, minute by minute to form to his mind's ideas.
The toy is a medium. A tool through which a little person explores ideas, feelings, the world around him or her.
A toy isn't trivial. It's a child's gateway to play, and through play, to exploring the world around them.
This Christmas Toys for Tots is struggling to meet demand.
Detroit is at 45% unemployment using the U6 numbers. Nationally we're at 17% unemployment using the U6 numbers. It's a mess out there. And children are the ones to feel it the hardest. Almost HALF...HALF of America's children will get their food from food stamps sometime during the course of their lives.
HALF. It's tough to be a kid.
Check out stats about child poverty some time.
41% of US Children live in low income families. 1 in 5 children, 20% live in poor families.
Children get the shaft. They really do.
While we're up here fighting the good fight, focused on the adult world, trying to plow a better future for our kids...they're still just kids, and they have no voice at all. They're easily lost in the shuffle and forgotten.
And all it really takes to make them happy is a tiny little bit of plastic or wood or a book to carry them away into another world. It doesn't take much.
Come on. A two dollar toy or puzzle or game.
It's almost Christmas folks.
Go to the store, get some groceries, stop in the toy aisle, get a toy or a book or a puzzle or a game, find a Toys for Tots drop location and just drop that toy on in. I think they're looking for toys for kids in the older spectrum right now, so maybe cards! Or action figures. Or puzzles.
Or make a tiny donation.
It's so easy.
And so cheap.
Santa would be proud. And I swear. I SWEAR you'll feel great about it. And I promise you'll make a very small person very happy.
I have difficulty expressing exactly how important I think it is to just take some time and do this.
These little guys out here, they're caught in the crossfire of something much larger than themselves. They're swept by the moods and tides of forces that they have no comprehension of.
Come on. Toy. Just a little toy.
Toys for Tots is having a shortage now. In some places it's like a depression. Not a recession, a depression. And we're three days from Christmas, and Toys for Tots is seeing shortages because demand is so high. They're doing better than last year, but they simply can't keep up with the need.
This isn't trivial. Toys aren't trivial. Not to the kids who have them, and play with them.
The importance of play in children's development
"There’s a lot happening during playtime. Little ones are lifting, dropping, looking, pouring, bouncing, hiding, building, knocking down, and more. They are learning key scientific concepts, such as what sinks and floats; mathematical concepts, including how to balance blocks to build a tower; and literacy skills, such as trying out new vocabulary or storytelling skills as children "act out" different roles.
"And when your children play with you, they are also learning — that they are loved and important and that they are fun to be around. These social - emotional skills give them the self-esteem and self-confidence they need to continue building loving and supportive relationships all their lives." Zero to Three
--Article
C'mon! Donate a toy this Christmas. It's important. Really. It is.
Toys for Tots. Find a drop box and drop in a new toy or give a cash donation.
If you yourself are in need of a toy for your kids, if you are financially devistated and you're scared for your kids that Santa won't make it this year...here's how you request some help with that.
Three days left, folks. C'mon.