|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|||
| ||||||||
|
|
Twelve people have materially helped me with the
project. Of those 4 are not members of ASMC.
Mrs. Mimi Weidert, Christina Mickens (Sandra Wright's
daughter), Coy Rahman, and Alba Robbins (a friend who helped
translate during the parties and drive my husband). The
President Col Weidert sent them
I would
also like to somehow thank the Marines at Quantico who have
provided the toys. My contact was SSGT
WATSON. Every one of the three years that we have done
this they have been superb, helpful, courteous, and seemed
to really enjoy what they were doing. I realize that there
were lots of Marines who helped with this and they do this
every year. Of course, I have heard about Toys for Tots for
years, but what really brought it home for me was the year I
was raising my two children single handedly, and the after
school program they attended received and gave them toys
from this program. The following is an exact quote from one of the recipient mothers, a Chimes, Inc. employee, who wrote on the sheet on which she signed up her three boys. (Chimes hires differently abled employees and used to be called Abilities Unlimited.)
Clara Weston
| ||||||||||||||||
|
This page last updated:
January 23, 2010 |
Chapter
volunteers sorted, labeled, staged and delivered toys for
approximately 472 children, whose parents work for one
of the three cleaning companies working in the
Pentagon.
thank
you letters, which made them feel appreciated. The members
who helped are: Vic Ackley, who arranged with Pentagon
building management to accommodate us, and talked me into
doing this again; Craig Fitzgibbons, who got the truck and
drove to Quantico and brought the toys to the Pentagon;
Sandra Wright who helped sort and helped to deliver toys;
Steve Scoval, COL Weidert, and Keith Hicks all helped sort
toys on Thursday; and Cindy Homan, who now works for DOT but
is still a member, took pictures and helped deliver. In all
we had 5 people on Friday. The first team of two delivered
the toys to Chimes, the second team to DidLake, Inc. and by
the time the first group was done, that team came with me to
deliver to TriArc. So it all worked out great.
Also would like you to thank the folks who helped with
bringing the toys into the building and giving us the room
in which we stored and sorted the toys. They were: Darryl
Diggs who found us the room, checked with everyone and
helped every step of the way (even gave us some toys); Ralph
Newton who let Vic know whom I needed to contact and what I
had to do; and the office of Courtney McCrae, the Dockmaster
who let his people know and make things happen.
The
way it was started in the Pentagon was that one of the
cleaning ladies saw toys being brought to my office one year
to take to the ASMC Holiday Social, and she asked how
someone could get some toys because some of her co-workers
did not have much money for present. Many work at minimum
wage and support several children. I called up the Toys for
Tots number and found out what needed to be done. That year,
1998, over 150 children received toys. The Marines loaded
all of it in my van, a
nd
three of us sorted it in an open hallway. Since then we
learned a lot, and have increased to include all the
cleaning companies (that we knew about). In 2000 approximately
375 children of the employees who clean the Pentagon
received toys. So the project does grow each year we
do it. But I had
extensive notes and forms to make the work easy.
