The Westchester County Toys for Tots Campaign encompasses the entire county of Westchester, which is 450 sq miles. The campaign started off in August seeking out a location in which to conduct this year’s operations. In September Kelly and Steve Topilnycky attended the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation Annual training, as guests, in which Steve was recognized as Region One LCO Coordinator of the Year, making the Westchester County Campaign the Campaign of the Year. This is a big honor.
We are proud to report that the Detachment has wrapped up another campaign year. This year we supported 28,274 children with 38,992 gifts within Westchester County.
Like all campaigns we had our challenges, including a warehouse/distribution space to work out of. This year after a lot of begging, we obtain the use of St. Matthew School in Hastings-on-Hudson. The space was smaller (approximately 3,100 sq. ft.) than previously used (approximately 8,000 sq. ft.). Access to the gym required the construction of a makeshift ramp. There were operational challenges with the space, as the bags of toys had to be hauled from the lower gym to an upper staging room for pickup. The same situation in reverse, when incoming donations arrived, they had to be hauled from the parking area down to the gym.
This year we distributed 38,992 gifts to 28,274 children in our area. Unfortunately, approximately, 6,028 children (mostly in the teen category) were not serviced, due to the lack of gifts for that age range. Had we been able to service those children, we would have serviced 34,302 children. The campaign spent an extreme amount of funds purchasing gifts for this age group, plus what was sent by the Foundation and community donations, we still came up short.
We had 346 collection points county wide with approximately 60 volunteers overall with 10 volunteers (including myself) conducting pickups at our end date and the days afterward, and the rest working in our warehouse counting, sorting and bagging.
Coordinators Kelly and Steve Topilnycky were invited to attend the Three Kings Celebration at the Dole center in Mount Vernon in January. We were honored by the city of Mount Vernon Mayor, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, and the Westchester Latinos Unidos honored both of us with plaques for our service to the community.
While the dust settles on this campaign we are already in the planning stages for the 2023 campaign. The first item need for our 2023 campaign is a distribution space, approximately 8,000 sq. ft. or larger, loading dock, with direct access to the outside, centrally located in Mid-Westchester County. Our use is November and December.
