By Joselyn King
For The Intelligencer
Wheeling – The local Toys for Tots group is serving a growing number of children each year, and now it needs a larger space in which to operate.
John Labriola, a Marine Corps Reserve member who serves as coordinator for Toys For Tots in Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties, addressed Ohio County Commissioners this week seeking help.
The Toys for Tots organization is backed solely by the Marine Corps League, he explained.
“Overall the detachment has had an issue with space and a place to call home,” Labriola said. “We are currently sharing a space with American Legion Post 1 (in Elm Grove), but we cannot hold events there, and we cannot hold our Toys for Tots there together.
“So we are looking for a place to call our own.”
The Marine Corps League asked commissioners for assistance in getting the word out that they are interested in someone donating a space to them where they can hold their monthly meetings or possibly conduct Toys for Tots there concurrently
Toys For Tots is presently being run from the National Road Church of Christ, but the organization is outgrowing the space quickly as the need to provide for more children grows, according to Labriola.
“I’m very passionate about ensuring the children and their hope for the future,” he said. “The world we live in and people in a general way are dismissive of these children. They are our future, whether we want to see them that way or not.”
Many of the children in the communities helped by Toys for Tots live in poverty, and they “do not get to see the hope or goodness that comes from others,” Labriola continued.
He reported the local Toys for Tots campaign distributed about 4,000 toys, books and stocking stuffers this past Christmas season to about 700 children.
“Over the past three years, we have given a total of 8,729 toys to 1,500 children,” Labriola continued. “Last year, however, our local community had flooding, and for a myriad of reasons our giving was down. Because of this, our small organization used $10,000 of its own money to assure the children had a few toys.
“This year, we are hoping to get ahead of that shortage and ensure we come up stronger and ready for the helpless children.”
He asked commissioners for a donation they “may see appropriate.”
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