TOYS FOR TOTS IN MARTIN COUNTY
About Toys for Tots

It all began in December 1947, with a hand-crafted doll.  The wife of Marine Reserve Major Bill Hendricks made this doll and asked her husband to deliver it to an organization that would present it to a child in need on Christmas Day.  Major Hendricks could find no agency to provide such a service.  To help fill that void, Major Hendricks and members of his Los Angeles Reserve Unit, collected and distributed 5,000 toys to the needy children of Los Angeles during that holiday season. The Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collection and distribution sites have become an important and familiar element of the Christmas Holiday landscape.

For more than 30 years, the United Way's Holiday Project has coordinated Toys for Tots through our Volunteer United efforts which is the United Way of Martin County's volunteer program.  The United Way of Martin County serves and is the approved Local Coordinating Organization.

Together we have helped reduce the stress on families and agenices while putting smiles on the faces of thousands of chidren.