Toys for Tots of Lake and Sumter County brightens Christmas for 16,000 children (and counting)

In the spirit of giving and spreading holiday cheer, Toys for Tots of Lake and Sumter County has once again proved that love, compassion and community can make a difference, especially during the festive season. As of earlier this month, the group of volunteers had distributed more than 16,000 toys to local families for the holidays.

“We’ve got 16,000 kids we generally service, but I think we’ve got even more than that this year,” coordinator Jan Ledbetter said. “The numbers won’t officially be in until the first of the year but it seems like we just keep getting in more and more donations.”

Toys for Tots of Lake and Sumter is led by the Marine Corps League 1267, which began the initiative 20 years ago.

“When we started doing this, we were serving about 500 kids,” Marine Corps League Commandant Bill Ward said. “Now we are helping more than 16,000. It’s insane because we give out about 50,000 toys every year. It just shows the generosity of our community.”

Volunteer Gail Long recalled her own experiences as a recipient of Toys for Tots when she was a child.

“As the daughter of a Marine, I always got a toy from Toys for Tots," Gail recalled. “There would be a big Christmas party and it always made me feel so special. I was thrilled to now help give out toys to children and make them feel the way I felt.”

This year, 500 collection boxes were placed around the two counties for people to donate toys. Although boxes were already collected and brought to the distribution center, Ledbetter said people were still dropping off last minute donations.

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Many organizations also held toy and bike drives to help provide for the distribution, including The Villages Corvette Club, which raised $43,000 and donated 1,332 toys for the cause. The group of 40 Corvettes were police escorted to the distribution center with their contributions.

“We are so thankful to everyone who holds fundraisers for this,” Ward said. “A group of us begin as early as October to make sure everything is ready to distribute. We couldn’t do it without our community."

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Christmas heroes: Toys for Tots of Lake and Sumter County