Photo Credit: Joyce Cory. License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en. Piles of toys are waiting to be given away.[/caption]Juniors and seniors from Beta Club, led by Tina Walker, volunteered at the Orange County Social Services center for the Toy Chest from December 11-15. The Toy Chest is an annual event which helps provide families in need with toys for Christmas. Ages 0-18 are covered, so even teenagers and infants have gift options.
Wednesday through Friday, volunteers stocked toys in rooms to make sure everything was set up properly for the weekend event. Saturday and Sunday is when the event was opened to parents to pick up toys. In order to be able to escort parents around, one must be 18 or older, but since most high schoolers are under that age they just continue to stock rooms or help carry toys to parents’ cars. Haley Moser, Beta Club Vice President, said, “I got to interact with people in the [Toy Chest event] which was cool. I love volunteering for it. I think it’s fun and I got to meet a lot of interesting people.”
When the doors opened on Saturday, even in the bone-chilling weather, parents stood in a line that stretched around the whole side of the building. The Toy Chest is the most busy from 10 am to 2 pm since this is the beginning times for the event and in turn people have the biggest selection of toys to choose from. Parents are allowed to pick a certain amount of toys (usually about two or three), a book, and a stocking stuffer for each child.
Nick Gentile, a Beta Club member, said, “[The Toy Chest] put into perspective how many people are in need in Orange County and made me feel thankful for what I had.”
Toys for Tots provides toys to the OCSS along with first hand donations to the center. Beta Club members helped bring in toys the entire week before the Toy Chest event. The club itself has been taking advantage of many volunteer opportunities lately. They donated bags of rice and cans of chicken to school so they could pack 50 Christmas meals to give to families in need. They also are collecting items for two kids off of the Angel Tree located in the front office.
0 comments