Toys For Tots Makes Holiday Bright For Needy Children

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Christmas shopping is a wrap for one Marine gunnery sergeant. He heads up the local Toys For Tots charity in the Baltimore area.

Gigi Barnett explains how he got the help to make the holiday bright for hundreds of needy children.

It's a shopping spree fit for a kid---or an adult who has $10,000 to spend. These workers are from Take Shape For Life, a weight loss company. Recently they boosted sales to record numbers just to buy hundreds of toys for Toys For Tots, the national charity started by the U.S. Marines.

Gunnery Sergeant Warren Howard collects all the toys. He rounded up volunteers at Amuse Toys in Baltimore this weekend. Boxes filled up fast for hundreds of needy children.

"Literally the toy that they get on Christmas morning will be the only toy that they get on Christmas morning," said Howard.

The Marines started Toys For Tots back in 1947 and it's still going strong. When they get a monetary donation, someone has to do all of the shopping.

"I tell them to look for themselves," Howard said. "We see the change that just one toy can make in a child's life on Christmas morning.

Meg Sheetz's dad was a Marine. She's now the CEO for Shape For Life and she says oftentimes a donation to Toys For Tots comes back to the community in unexpected ways.

"I have gone to families and just watched the appreciation of a parent who couldn't afford to get gifts and they give back later. I've actually worked with parents shopping or doing other activities within Toys For Tots," Sheetz said.

More than 500 toys were donated to Toys For Tots this weekend.

According to the Toys For Tots website, the Marines collected nearly $300 million in toys and cash nationwide for the charity last year.