Operation Toy Drop 2010 gets 5,000 toys for kids
This weekend, paratroopers at Fort Bragg donated more than 5,000 toys this weekend to needy children for the opportunity to earn jump wings from foreign allies Botswana, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Poland and Thailand.
“We’re having a great airborne day today, and paratroopers just love jumping,” said Maj. Gen. David Blackledge, commanding general of U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) from Sicily drop zone Saturday. “This is a great opportunity for us to give back to the communities that have supported us so well through all the deployments the last ten years.”
Rain and sleet in the freezing morning temperatures didn’t scare away U.S. and allied nation paratroopers from donating toys and earning foreign airborne wings during the 13th annual Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop. The annual event got underway Friday with toy collection and sustained airborne training, and the first 1,300 paratroopers jumped onto Sicily drop zone, where large crowds gathered despite the near freezing temperatures.
By mid-day, rain and at times sleet blanketed the area, forcing planners to reschedule the day’s remaining jumps to next week.
You can find photos at Flickr and videos at DVIDS
Category: Military issues
On a related note, we are all familiar with the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign. In the past we had always dropped off several toys, normally one or two a week at different locations with the understanding that the toys would be distributed locally. Well this year we saw on the local news that a large chunk of the toys already donated this year in the Atlanta area had been shipped to Louisiana for the “victims” of hurricane Katrina. I don’t know how long they are going to ride this “victim” of Katrina gravy train, but quite frankly the expiration date for those folks has come and gone. As a result my wife has issued an order that none of us will drop off any toys for the “Toys for Tots” this year.
Atlanta has a huge need, in the neighborhood of 900K toys, and to take a third of those collected and ship them out of state has just set that woman who is the daughter of a Marine, over the edge.
So anyway I just wanted to vent and send the reminder that you constantly got to make sure that what you are contributing to is actually going to who you think it will.
We have the same issue with several of the food bank drives. All of the metro Atlanta counties hold these food drives for the various food banks, but as we have discovered a lot of these drives while you think the food will go to the local food banks in your community actually wind up being sent to Atlanta proper. We only donate to those that keep it local.
Yeah I am a Grinch, but my money is tight and sometimes I feel like I am only one step away from being one of those folks receiving aid instead of giving it.
Re JAG:
we do have to make sure our donations are being used for what we think.
I’ve decided most American children have more toys than they could ever play with– and organizations only give to the select group they choose. I’d give to some deployed dad’s kids or something– just to let them know we care– or victims of fires, or some such thing– but the same families, year after year…not when we have 14 kids (blended, 9 still at home) and 6 grandkids of our own.
So— we decided to give one gift to the Angel Tree from Chuck colson’s Prison Ministries and money to purchase ducks and goats to World Vision. It was not earth shattering– but it was specific and thought out.
I think that’s the thing as conservatives– me make specific choices for ourselves and don’t assume some bureaucrat knows what they’re doing. 😉
JAG: that has hurt the local Toys for Tots here as well, as people wanted them to go local. The amount going elsewhere has been reported between 25-100 percent. Sad.
Research, choose, and give where you know what and where it goes. Doesn’t matter if toys or money. What you donate does not belong to the charity, it belongs to you and you have entrusted it to the charity — and they need to account for how and where it is used.
As for me, I hope I can give to my favorite charity, Toys for Tarts again this year…