MOLINE, Ill. — The U.S. Marine Corps. Reserve Toys for Tots program is celebrating 75 years of giving underserved children toys for the holidays in the Quad Cities.
But for U.S. Marine Corporal Alec Smith, it's his first year in charge of the program.
"So I'm in charge of making sure that we have enough toys, we have enough outreach to the community and make sure that all those toys get to the children," Smith said.
As an active duty Marine, he's expected to be ready to answer the call at a moment's notice, but now he's grappling with how to improve and build on a 75-year tradition in the Quad Cities.
"Well, it's not easy, that's for sure," said Smith. "But it's definitely something that's worth doing."
And so far, he's identified several internal issues he wants to fix.
He said that in previous years, there was a big issue with families signing up to receive toys but then never showing up to collect them. This would leave an overstock of bagged toys that the volunteers spent time sorting through.
"[It's] a real shame, because we've worked so hard to try and provide these toys with the community," said Smith. So now, he's added three more days for families to collect their toys, up from the usual two days.
But with just 15 volunteers, he recognizes that this will put a greater workload on them, so he's also changing how the toys are organized and bagged.
"So basically last year, and all the previous years, we've bagged up toys to distribute by family," said Smith. "Which means that individual families were getting a bag full of toys tailored specifically to them, which is great, except it's a lot of work. And it requires a lot of tracking."
So now, under Smith's leadership, the toys are being sorted by age group instead of number of families. He says this makes the entire process run smoother and more efficiently for the volunteers.
"A lot of these volunteers put in more hours here than they do at their job," said Smith. "So I really appreciate that."
Families can pick up their toys from Toys for Tots between f 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Dec. 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18.
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