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Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.

Dining Services collects ‘toys for tots’ during holiday season

Published: December 3, 2010
Section: Features


The holiday season is fast approaching and Brandeis Dining Services has taken notice.

Whether you take your meals in Sherman, Usdan or the Faculty Club, Dining Services has set up tables in every dining hall advertising their Toys for Tots campaign to collect toys for needy children in the Waltham area.

Toys for Tots is a national toy drive that was started in 1947 when Marine Corps Major Bill Hendricks and a group of Marine Reservists joined forces to collect and distribute more than 5,000 toys to children in the Los Angeles area.

The initial endeavor was so successful that during the 1948 holiday season, Toys for Tots went nationwide with the aim of bringing “the joy of Christmas to America’s needy children.”

Since the inaugural season of the campaign, Toys for Tots has distributed more than 400 million toys to more than 188 million children all across the country. There are Toys for Tots collection locations all across the country, Brandeis included.

Between now and December 17, students, staff and faculty are invited to donate new, unwrapped, non-violent toys for children up to age 15, at designated collection areas in Sherman, Usdan and the Faculty Club.

While students are welcome to donate toys from any place, for students’ convenience, appropriate toys are available for purchase in the C-Store.

Though all toys will be dropped off at same location—the National Archives Building in Waltham—according to Dining Services Marketing Manager Sarah Conduragis, toy collection has become a competition between the different dining locations. “[Aramark] employees are working hard to make sure that their location collects the most toys to load into the dining services truck” to be delivered to Waltham.

“Last year we set our goal at 600 donated toys (up 100 toys from previous years) and beat the goal by collecting a record-breaking 621 toys. A big thank you to the students, staff and faculty on campus for making last year such a great success! We are looking forward to making this year just as successful.”