Toys For Tots

When a model airplane club works together to donate toys to needy children, the benefits don't stop with the thrill of giving.

By Dennis Adamisin

As seen in Model Aviation, September 1991

AMERICA is in the midst of a celebration of gratitude and of awe of the men and women of Desert Storm and their dedication. Three years ago my club, the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Flying Circuits, first got involved with another group of military heroes: the U.S. Marine Reserves and the Toys for Tots program.

The Marine Toys for Tots logo proclaims the program.

Marine Staff Sergeant Robert Siebenek and Flying Circuits (Ft. Wayne, IN) member Tim Fox with some of the stock of toys collected at the Circuits’ 1990 Toys for Tots fun fly. The club has collected and donated over 600 toys in the 3 years they have held the event.

Since 1947, a dedicated group of Marines has been collecting and distributing toys for needy families in their communities. The program has grown from an annual Los Angeles-area project to a nationwide campaign. By now virtually anywhere you find Marines you will also find Marines involved in helping their communities.

Our club’s involvement began in the summer of 1988. One of our members, Tim Fox, saw an opportunity for the Circuits to become better community citizens by donating and collecting toys in support of our local Marine Reservists. Realizing that even good deeds can benefit from an incentive, Tim enlisted the support of Phil’s Hobby Shop, which donated a Sportster 40 and an O.S. Max .40SF. Another longtime club member and master craftsman, Ken Kimmel, created a concours-quality model from the donated kit. This beautiful model was used as an incentive to encourage club members to contribute a toy. For every toy a member contributed he got a "raffle ticket'' chance at winning the model.

A pickup truck full of toys on its way to a community center in the Ft. Wayne area. The Marines distribute 22,000-25,000 toys annually within a 125-mile radius of Ft. Wayne, and they never have too many!

Knowing that our local Marine Reservists distribute toys they’ve collected to families and community organizations within a radius of roughly 125 miles around Fort Wayne, Tim wrote letters to all of the clubs in the area and invited them to attend a fun fly at the Circuits' field held on the first Saturday in December. Again, every toy donated earned a chance to win the Sportster.

The Flying Circuits’ T-f-T fun fly in 1990 saw temperatures in the 50s and light winds—a marked improvement over earlier years. Scheduling the event on the first Saturday in December places it after the Thanksgiving shopping weekend but before other holiday events.

Finally, the club members distributed flyers inviting the public out to donate a toy and—if they wanted—to get a chance to fly an RC model. Club members got their trainers out and kept them ready for these special guests.

That first year we were able to collect 200 toys. The outcome was somewhat surprising given that it was the first time we had tried such an event. We felt that we were on to a good thing and started making plans for 1989.

The second year we kept the same basic formula, only this time the model was a Midwest AeroStar 40 with a SuperTigre 0.40 engine and a Futaba radio. Switching to a trainer-type aircraft that was ready to fly made it a more feasible prize if won by one of our nonmodeling guests. Indeed, if a nonmodeler won the airplane it was all charged up and ready to fly that day!

We also added some other small prizes to reward participants who braved winds and temperatures in the low twenties which greeted us on fly-in day. Again we collected over 200 toys and found ourselves getting that warm glow from knowing that it is better to give than to receive.

In the third year we offered two airplane/engine/radio packages and dozens of other prizes for fun-fly participants. We were also blessed with one of the best flying days of the year with Flying Circuits and guests out in force. Jim Sears, the AMA District VI VP, showed up and got some stick time too. He wrote up his experience in his next monthly article for the AMA News section of Model Aviation.

However, we also spotted our first clouds on the horizon. For the first time we tapped the club treasury for some of the attendance prizes. It was evident that we had started to drift from the basic goal of collecting toys for needy families. We had collected more toys than ever before—but we also had the realization that we needed to regain our focus, which was to help the Marine Reservists collect toys for needy families, not for ourselves. In 1991, our fourth year of involvement, we will be going back to basics.

The Flying Circuits have found this to be an effective and fulfilling way to get involved and help our community. We have presented our “formula”:(and at least one of our pitfalls) and invite your club to use or improve upon it.

One area where we definitely can improve is in our publicity. Our local Marine Reservists have enlisted the  active involvement of radio and TV and local merchants. The flyers describing our event should be in the hands of our Reservists by mid-October so they can help distribute them to local merchants while they make their “toy runs.”

Getting on the calendar early helps ensure that our event can be advertised along with all of the other Toys for Tots events announced on radio and TV. This should help us reach beyond our basic modeling audience and improve our public image.

The Flying Circuits club membership has averaged between 100 and l20 members in the three years we have held our Toys for Tots event. We have averaged about two toys donated per member. I challenge your club to do better.

But whether your club collects one toy or a thousand, remember that with every toy collected you are helping a needy child in your community, and the afterglow of that goes well beyond any scorecard.

Want to get started? Get in touch with your nearest Marine Reserves or recruiting station to find out how to get involved. If you do not have one near you, then consider contacting local churches or charity organizations with a similar mission and ask how you can help. The real key is to get involved with your community.

Don’t limit yourselves to Christmas gifts, either. Chances are that you have local charities such as childrens’ shelters in your area that could use some help any time of the year.

Enlist the support of your local hobby dealer and other area merchants for your events. Short of a free donation they can still help you with discounts on merchandise destined for charity or can help in other ways such as distributing flyers advertising your event and possibly in letting you use photocopiers or some other services to help prepare the flyers.

Their support does not even have to be toys or money. Many organizations could simply use good old-fashioned manpower involvement with a project. Get the reputation for helping out. Your club’s good reputation earned and demonstrated by active involvement in community help projects certainly won't hurt next time you get pressure about your flying site.

Don't forget to get announcements to local newspaper, radio, and TV community affairs bulletins.

Is it worthwhile? In many cases the toys collected and distributed by the Marines at Christmas are the only toys some children see. Our hobby of RC modeling is a want funded by our discretionary funds and not a need. Too many people in all of our communities still have needs that preclude giving gifts at Christmas—or any other time of the year. Simply by channeling some of your discretionary RC funds into a couple of toys you will be giving a needy child a treasured gift.