Amateur Radio community fuels
'Best Year Ever' for United Way toy drive
Contributions from the Amateur Radio community to the ARRL Holiday Toy
Drive resulted in "the best year ever" for its benefactor, the
United Way's White Doves Holiday Project in Martin County, Florida.
Martin County United Way agreed to serve as a collection point and to
coordinate toy distribution.
"They have enough toys to cover their own program and three others,
all over the region," said ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager
Allen Pitts, W1AGP, who says a toy stuffed bear inspired him to spearhead
the program.
The toys and donations will help brighten holidays for youngsters and
families whose lives were devastated by the hurricanes that hit Florida
earlier this year.
Carol Hodnett, a director at the United Way site, says the storms and
their aftermath were especially traumatic for children. "In addition
to the frightening experience of going through the hurricanes, youngsters
are coping with a great deal of stress felt within their families and
at school," she says. In Central Florida, more than 22,000 homes
were destroyed and another 40,000 received significant damage.
Thousands of families remained homeless as the holiday season approached.
Pitts says that radio amateurs, who had helped provide emergency communication
in the hurricanes'
immediate aftermath, came to the rescue yet again in the toy drive. Hams
and ham radio clubs from Maine to California purchased thousands of new
children's toys. Most hams included QSL cards with their toy or cash donations.
Among the elves: Phil Royce, KE4PWE, of the Palm Beach Amateur Radio
Council--representing radio clubs in Palm Beach County--recently delivered
a toy donation to Martin County. "The place is loaded with toys,"
he said of the fairgrounds staging area, where the donated toys have been
stored and sorted since they began arriving.
ARES New York City District Emergency Coordinator Mike Lisenco, N2YBB,
said the ARRL Holiday Toy Drive provided hams in his area an opportunity
to pay back the assistance hams from all over the US rendered in the wake
of the September 11 terror attacks.
"This is just one way we can say 'thank you,'" he said, "to
be able to reciprocate and help someone else in their time of need. Paying
it forward, if you will."
Lisenco also offered special thanks to Bill Davis, KC8CQT, and to FedEx.
"Bill, who works as a member of the FedEx Customer Advocate Team,
went out of his way to arrange for FedEx to pick up the cost of shipping
the toys to Florida," he explained. "His help, and the generosity
of the FedEx Corporation, is greatly appreciated."
Diane Tomasik, associate director of the Volunteer and Community Resource
Center at the United Way of Martin County, said the toy distribution started
Monday, December 20, even as more donations continued to arrive from the
Amateur Radio community.
"We will not only serve about 1200 families from our own site but
also have plenty to share with Indiantown and the Children's Home Society--which
covers the whole Treasure Coast region," she told ARRL. "We
also will be able to give toys to children though the sheriff's department
programs."
Tomasik noted the more than $8000 in cash donations will allow the agency
to fill the gaps for age groups that were short of toys. "The White
Doves Project has had a phenomenal success this year, thanks to the efforts
of the ARRL nationwide," she said. "It's our best year ever."
Pitts said the event's success has shown Amateur Radio's best side. "The
ARRL is all of us working together," he said, "and the League
should feel very proud of what we accomplished together for these children
of the storms."
Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The
American Radio Relay League
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