Toys For Tots 2010 Campaign Begins

The Santa Barbara Fire Department is participating in the annual holiday toy drive benefiting Toys for Tots by collecting toys at each of their eight Fire Stations. The toy collection drive begins on November 20, 2010. Each station will have a collection box for new, unwrapped toys.

Toys for Tots began in 1947, when Major Bill Hendricks, USCR and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign. That year, Marine Corps Reserve units across the nation conducted Toys for Tots campaigns in each community in which a Marine Reserve Center was located. Marines have conducted successful nationwide campaigns at Christmas each year since 1948.

This year in Santa Barbara County all toys collected by the Fire Stations will be distributed by the Unity Shoppe.

You can drop off the toys anytime between 9am and 5pm seven days a week at any of the Santa Barbara City Fire Stations located at:

• Station 1, 121 W. Carrillo Street

• Station 2, 819 Cacique Street

• Station 3, 415 E. Sola Street

• Station 4, 19 N. Ontare

• Station 5, 2505 Modoc

• Station 6, 1802 Cliff Drive

• Station 7, 2411 Stanwood Drive

• Station 8, 40 Hartley Place

Please call 805-564-5711, for more information