To the Editor:

This year with COVID has really been an unprecedented time. I felt that I needed to do something good for others rather than spend all my days at home during COVID. I decided that I wanted to do something for the children in our community that don’t always get to wake up with a gift under their Christmas tree. I knew that with the help of the Marine Toys for Tots program, the disadvantaged children could wake up with a toy under their tree.

I am a sophomore at Lauralton Hall. Every year we are required to obtain a certain amount of service hours. Due to COVID, our school wasn’t sure how they wanted to handle service hours. However, my family and I decided that I should continue to serve whether or not my school decided that they were needed for this year. Working with Toys for Tots was proposed to me by a family friend. It was not a program that I had originally come to mind.

When proposed, I let it sit in my head for a few days. I later reached out to the director of the Milford area, as it was closer to my school. We sent communication back and forth for several days. We then decided to meet to pick up boxes and distribute them to businesses nearby.

I contacted businesses near my school to ask if I could drop off a box at their establishment. One of the first places I contacted was the Milford Indoor Tennis Club and just like everywhere else, they happily replied “Yes.” I had drafted a letter of introduction that I presented to the businesses. The letter told who I was, what I was doing and my objective with TFT. Over the next few weeks, I kept in contact with the director Erik Torres. I would update him on toy activity and box locations. Along with seeking out new locations/businesses, he would task me with box deliveries and visits to existing participants. Many of the locations were actually surprised to get a call and visit because they believed that the Toys for Tots would be cutting down the amount of places due to COVID, but it was the exact opposite. Many businesses had been closed and Mr Torres was afraid of not bringing in enough toys this year. I promised to bring in as many as I possibly could.

It was finally December 8 and 9. I picked up all the boxes from the locations in which they had been dropped. I unpacked all the toys in my garage and counted every single one. I repacked them all into our truck and brought them to the home base center in Bridgeport that they were running the program. In the end, I had 207 toys to deliver to them. It will be a part of 5,000 toys to be delivered to 1,500 kids this Christmas and I couldn’t be happier to help.

Colette Burke

Buck Trail, Sandy Hook December 25, 2020