Episode 11: Partners In The Community: Toys For Tots

In this episode, Roger and Kent County Toys for Tots representative Jeff DeJonge

talk about Jeff's 27-year history with the organization,

the impact Toys for Tots has had on Kent County,

and how we can help share in the season of giving.

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In this episode of the Life & Finances Together Podcast, our financial professional Roger David speaks with special guest Jeff DeJonge of Toys for Tots in Kent County learning all about our local chapter and the path your donated toys travel to reach the children and families in need in West Michigan. 

Rinvelt & David has been a Toys For Tots drop off location for almost twenty years, and in that time Jeff has stopped by our office to collect some of the many toys that have been brought to us. It’s been an incredible partnership and we are continually overwhelmed and inspired by the generosity of our clients and the community during the season of giving. 

Jeff got connected with Toys for Tots back when he started working for the City of East Grand Rapids 27 years ago. Toys would be dropped off at the police department and fire station in town because most fire departments in the area were collection sites. At the time, EGR was not. So Jeff asked the chief about becoming a collection site, and he agreed. Jeff knew that one of the dispatchers was involved in Toys for Tots so he told her the situation. She said that she was a site coordinator and suggested that Jeff volunteer and distribute the toys. So 27 years ago he began his relationship with Toys for Tots with his then girlfriend (now wife) and he’s been part of the organization ever since. 

Jeff’s daughter, Amber, is now in college in Connecticut but makes sure she makes it home before distribution. It s a family tradition and something that clearly means a great deal to this family. 

You can learn a bit more about Jeff’s story from the WZZM special recorded in 2020. 

Jeff shares that seven years ago the Marines closed the Monroe Marine Reserve Station. At that time the Marines were always in charge of the Toys for Tots program. When they left the area the Toys For Tots organization in Kent County became a LCO, local community organization. And from that time forward  it's all been run by community members. The Marines aren't involved in it anymore. 

When Jeff began his tenure as the Kent County Coordinator, the organization was helping around 8,000 children annually. Last year they distributed to a little over 11,500 kids in Kent County. The year before that saw about 13,000. This year, Jeff thinks they will be on pace to provide toys to another 11-12,000 children distributing over 35,000 and probably closer to 40,000 toys! It amounts to about 4 semi loads with each child getting about three items. 

Jeff explains that they used to partner with the local food banks to coordinate registration for help, but they learned that there was a problem because the food banks would turn families away if they didn’t qualify by the food bank standards. Jeff moved the organization to a strictly online registration system which has helped impact the growth and the number of children and families being helped. 

So if someone is in need of help making the holidays special for their child or children, they can call 211 and they'll be directed to the Toys for Tots website where they can register online.

Jeff says, “our feeling is that if you ask us for help we're gonna help you. We haven't turned anybody away because the Foundation believes in karma. They'd rather have somebody get a toy that shouldn't get a toy then somebody get turned away. So as long as we have enough toys we'll help you.” 

Roger asks about how the toys are collected and distributed. Jeff walks through the process: 

We have driver volunteers that will bring the collection boxes to businesses and collection sites around the city. 

They'll get called if donations fill up the boxes early and collection sites want us to pick up early. We'll pick them up and bring them to our warehouse where we sort them and box them up. 

Otherwise, the week before distribution all the toys get picked up. We're working hard that week. We sort the toys out by size - if it could be a gift in itself, a medium gift, a stocking stuffer, a game, or a stuffed animal. 

We count the donations and then we box them up. With the total quantity we figure out how many each kid can get. Perhaps it’s a medium and a large with a stocking stuffer or a game per family or stuffed animal. We also do books. So, we'll give out a book potentially per child or per family depending on how many come in. 

The nice thing about Toys for Tots is it's all community generated. Whatever the community gives is what we can give. We do get some support from the foundation, but that's not enough to fully provide what the community needs. 

Once the toys are sorted and ready, they go to the four distribution sites on December 21.  North Rockford Middle School, Wyoming Armory, Discovery Elementary School and St. Peter and Paul School are the sites. 

Steelcase supplies the semi-trucks and brings the toys to those sites. Volunteers unload each truck by hand, bringing the toys in and setting them out. The nice thing is as we do it kind of like a store. We'll walk the parent around and they can choose the gift for their child. 

Which is great because the parents have a... it kind of gives them a little more dignity. They feel invested in what their child is getting. You know it's nice sometimes you see the excitement, or, you know, “oh my gosh, my kid wanted that,” and they found it on the table. 

Roger asks if there is a particular story that comes to mind about working with Toys for Tots for 27 years that really spoke to Jeff. 

Last year was a really, it was a... it was tough. We had these nurses from Spectrum Health reach out to us. They said that a mother had just died, and she was a single mother. The grandparents got the kids. They called me like the week before distribution and said they have nothing. The grandparents just basically got the kids and that was it. They wanted to know if Toys for Tots could help them. Registration was down and so Jeff and his team said sure, send them in. But it was the nurses who actually came and picked out the toys for the kids. That was nice that they partnered and helped that family and had such a strong connection. 

Jeff had a lady reach out two years ago asking if she could give several bags of toys. She couldn’t get out to a drop site but wondered if he could come pick them up. Jeff went and got them. She shared her gratitude and said, “you don't know how much this means to me. When I was a kid, I didn't have anything, and Toys for Tots was all we got for Christmas.” She didn’t live in a real ritzy area; it was an apartment in Wyoming. But she wanted to make sure that she could pass it on… which was cool. 

Roger asks about the volunteers that it takes to make distribution happen each year. 

Distribution sites will have about 60 volunteers or more helping. We'll have about 40 families every 15 minutes come through, so there have to be enough volunteers to walk them around also staff the tables to put toys on the table from the boxes. And to be at registration, so with four sites you multiply that out and on December 21 we’ll probably have a few hundred people volunteering. 

If you want to volunteer, they always need help unloading the semi-trucks. You get to have a partner because it's a two person per box job. 

There is also an opportunity to do driver pick up. 

In past years we’ve been able to have volunteers help with toy sorting in our warehouse. The warehouse this year was a little more limited so most of it’s gonna be done by our current host who is supplying the volunteers just because it's a lot more restricted access in the space they’re letting us use, which isn't as ideal because we love having people come in and help and a lot of people want to come in and help and we can't have everybody coming to help this year. 

To be included in the volunteer communications, you can email to let the coordinators know of your interest and then there will be sign-up geniuses that will be sent out for the sites that we need help with. 

kent.county.mi@toysfortots.org. 

Roger asks about the type of toys and ages to buy for. 

Toys are divided by age groups:

Baby to two years old. Three to five. Six to nine, and ten to thirteen. Then boy and girl. 

Typically, we don't have a problem with the three to seven year olds because everybody knows what to buy for kids those ages. The older kids are where we have the problems-the nine to thirteen. 

LEGOs are always awesome. Electronic stuff, remote control cars. Things like that are good for the older ages. 

And then people forget about babies, too so we're always looking for baby gifts- toys and things – all the way up to walkers and music tables and learning pads. 

But generally speaking, all kids like Matchbox stuff, action figures, imagination and craft kinds of toys. They like Nerf guns or balls - always popular. There's Barbie and all kinds of dolls that are out there. Older girls like makeup and hair stuff. 

So just to reiterate, how can the community help Toys For Tots and the 12,000 children you aim to help this year? 

Donate a new unwrapped toy. We need as much as we can get. Bring it to Rinvelt & David or to one of the 169 other drop-off sites. We can make it convenient for you.

 You can donate money. Go to the local page. You can donate locally because that money that's donated to the local page stays locally so that we can spend locally. If you donate to the National Foundation that sometimes you'll get flyers in the mail for, that goes to the National Foundation that doesn't stay locally. 

Or you can write a check and mail it to us and that money will stay locally also. That's the greatest thing. 

The foundation is awesome. It's one of the triple-A rated organizations which means like 98% of whatever is donated goes to toys not into cost. Last year we tried to mirror that. We are at a 92 to 93 percent between administrative costs and toy giveaways. For us administrative costs is fuel. Trucks. Rental costs for high-lows. Everything's done primarily through volunteers. Completely community-generated organization. If the community won't help us we won't be here.

Just like, we still need a warehouse. 

Jeff's dream is to have some local community member that has a warehouse, like a subdivided warehouse, give Toys For Tots a warehouse space. It hurts because they don't have a permanent home.  They've had to turn away truckloads of toys. Hasbro will call the foundation and say, "who can take one or two truckloads of toys? We’ve got to get these out of here this summer."  But because Kent County Toys For Tots don't have a permanent warehouse, we can't take them, so another place gets them.  If our chapter had a home that's permanent, the nice thing is when we have those opportunities, and we used to be able to jump at those big donations, then we can also be an aid to the Toys for Tots programs in the surrounding areas too. 

We can help out the less fortunate counties in Michigan. We can transfer those toys and then we can help those in Muskegon and Lake County and Newaygo County and Ionia County. 

We can't own. That's why we need somebody to donate the space. So we're just looking for somebody that will say, “hey I'll donate this space to you for a tax deduction.” We'd like to make the space a long-term home because it's very difficult to be temporary.

We got kicked out of our site last year. We carry over the toys that come in after Christmas or that people don't pick up, so we have to store them for next year. Toys for Tots always has a footprint. In addition to toys, there are administrative items-tables and boxes and supplies that we have to store year-round, so we need a space year-round. Otherwise, we're constantly having to find someplace or we have to pay for storage and that cuts into the toy budget. 

So if there's anybody that's got some excess warehouse space in Kent County that they can donate, Toys for Tots will give a tax write-off for the use of the space and that donation.

Roger thanks Jeff for taking the time today to share this information.

“It's been an absolute joy to be part of this work that you do to make a difference in children's lives. You may think a little toy is just, what's the big deal? Well, it's a big deal. It's a big deal to any child, right? You know the other thing too is when you really think about it is a big deal to mom and dad. It takes pressure off of the parents. They may be dealing with the dilemma of “do I heat the house or make a car payment or get a toy or food?” Toys are an extra expense that typically is not there at that month that they've got to figure out how to do.

People may not really realize that too, mom and dad are working hard today it's a little bit hard this day and age with you know prices where they're at and everything else just to make ends meet and yeah and the fact that you're able to do that and help mom and dad out too. I mean as a parent of you know three daughters, I couldn't even imagine not being able to do that, to provide a Christmas for them.

It's just devastating, right, so it's not only the children that you're helping, but you're also giving a gift and doing a wonderful thing to calm the minds and the hearts of the parents that you know are just trying to provide for their children and make the holidays a memorable time.”

If any of you have any questions about Toys for Tots and how you can become part of the work that they're doing you can give us a call here at the office here at Rinvelt and David. You can talk to Chelsey and she can direct you on how to be part of the work that they're doing. Thank you so much again for coming in today. And that email again is kent.county.mi@toysfortots.org. There you have it.

Thanks so much for reading and for learning about Toys for Tots with us today. Rinvelt and David will be accepting new unwrapped toys for children ages birth to 13 through December 13th for Toys for Tots and we welcome your visit and your donation. For questions about our financial services or finances in general, please send us an email, give us a call, and of course please like and subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.