More than 5,000 toys were collected for children throughout Baldwin County during this year’s Toys for Tots drive, organizers announced, marking the 19th year the United States Sports Academy in Daphne has served as a collection hub for the program.
The academy partnered with the Jesse Andrews Jr. Detachment of the Marine Corps League to run the 2014 collection drive, which accepted donated toys through Dec. 11 before distributing them to children across the county. The Daphne location has long been considered one of South Alabama’s largest Toys for Tots collection centers, drawing donations from throughout the region each holiday season.
A program with roots stretching back to 1947
Toys for Tots traces its origins to 1947, when U.S. Marine Corps Maj. William L. Hendricks and a group of Marine Corps Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to children in need. The idea caught on quickly — the following year, the Marine Corps Reserve formally adopted the program and expanded it into a national initiative that has continued every holiday season since.
More than seven decades later, the program’s Baldwin County chapter has grown into a significant piece of the community’s holiday giving, relying on volunteers from the Marine Corps League and the ongoing support of the United States Sports Academy, an independent, nonprofit, accredited sports university whose mission includes service to the surrounding community.
Organizers say the toys collected through the Daphne drive go directly to children throughout Baldwin County, helping ensure local families facing hardship still have gifts to open during the holiday season.