READING, Pa. – Christmas is less than seven weeks away, and organizers of the Toys for Tots drive in Berks County say the need is greater than ever.
“I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m going to push through. My goal is to help everybody,” says Sophia Medina, coordinator for Berks County Toys for Tots.
It’s Medina’s first year in that role. For the last three years, she’s been assistant coordinator, but she got involved with the organization before that in 2019. At the time, she wanted to teach her children about community service.
“It was supposed to be for two hours, and here I am seven years later,” Medina said.
Toys for Tots, a program of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, collects new, unwrapped toys in the three months leading up to Christmas to donate to children in need.
Medina said since 2019, she has seen families’ needs grow drastically.
“We actually have 1,900 families,” she said. “This is the most families since I’ve been around.”
Medina said she’s been feverishly working around her job and parenting schedule to get boxes out to organizations and businesses that help collect toys.
She’s also been coordinating some special collection events, including one at the Walmart in Wyomissing, located at 1135 Berkshire Blvd., on Saturday, Nov. 14.
There’s also an Operation Toy Train event to collect toys in Kutztown on Nov. 22., Medina said.
“There’s going to be a train that comes through and they’re going to have Santa there,” she said. “The kids could take pictures with Santa.”
In addition to donations of toys and money, Toys for Tots officials said this year they also need giant, black construction trash bags to carry the toys for distributions.
“We shut our application list off for now, so we ensure that we have enough for the families that did apply, but we will try to open it again, sometime in December for the families that still need to apply,” Medina said.
If you’d like to donate or volunteer, visit the Toys for Tots website.
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