Local Toys for Tots drives make Christmas brighter

Toy drives in St. Mary Parish are nearing completion with Christmas Day just a little more than a week away.
The Marine Corps League, St. Mary Detachment, Toys for Tots drive will distribute toys Saturday to approved area families at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Morgan City. The local Marine Corps League drive benefits more than just Tri-City area children as those across St. Mary as well as Lower St. Martin Parish children receive toys.
Meanwhile, in Berwick, the Police Department as well as the town’s Dollar General have partnered in a toy drive to benefit the town’s children.
In both drives, donors are asked to give a new, unwrapped toy.
While gift cards are accepted in the Berwick drive, they are not accepted in the Toys for Tots campaign. However, checks can be made out to Toys for Tots and delivered to Quality Cleaners in Morgan City to make sure they remain in the area.
Cash is not accepted in the Berwick drive.
COVID-19 and its economic impacts haven’t impacted the drive much.
In the local Toys for Tots drive, the number of recipients actually is down from a normal year of 1,300 to 1,500 to about 1,000 youngsters this year, local Toys for Tots coordinator Bill Goessl said.
“So I do believe a lot of families have moved out,” he said of the drive, which serves children from infants to 12 years old.
In Berwick, about 250 families were served last year, with just a few more added this year, which co-coordinator and Berwick Police Department Animal Warden Brigitte Exnicious attributed to a few families moving into town.
The drive began four years ago when André Parent, store manager of Berwick’s Dollar General, approached the Police Department about holding a toy drive to benefit the town’s youth. Nationally, Dollar General participates in a toy drive, he said.
“I take pride to know that my store is part of a bigger community with 17,000 stores, but I’m proud to know that my store in Berwick is serving the community in Berwick,” Parent said. “So I want to give back to the community in Berwick, just keeping it in town.”
Toys can be brought to the Berwick Police Department or Dollar General. The drive is for youth ages one month to 17 years old.
Exnicious wraps the gifts, and they are delivered by officers to the youngsters. While a deadline of Friday has been set to try to get everything out in time for Christmas, items will be taken after the fact and delivered.
“We’ve given them out all the way up until Christmas morning,” Berwick Police Chief David Leonard said.
“We just try to encourage a date to have everything managed. Everything lined up. Everything delivered to the kids that way for Christmas they will have something that morning to open up.”
While the big distribution event is Saturday for area youth, the Toys for Tots drive will continue until Christmas Eve.
Penny Galloway, who has been working with the program for 20 years, has a personal connection to projects like this one.
“Because I was basically one of those children that didn’t get much at Christmas time,” she said Monday afternoon in a room filled with toys to be distributed.
“We had five in our family, and we had to stretch it, or we didn’t have the money.”
She said it’s a good deed when a child has something to open on Christmas morning.
“It may not be exactly what they want but at least they’re getting something for Christ-mas,” Galloway said.
Connie Shepherd, who began working with the program in 2005 when her grandson, Dustin Kennedy, joined the Marines, said that it brings happiness to do this work.
“You know when they open the gifts, like Penny said, they’re happy,” she said.
“I was lucky. We got Christmas gifts (as children), but the joy of what the Marine Corps does for the kids is what puts the blessing on this."
Galloway credited the Marine Corps for making Christmas meaningful for many youngsters nationwide.
“They have a lot in their heart to give, and they’re not going to let a child go without,” she said.