Toy drive hits the mark for kids

Dear editor: Another successful Toys for Tots to Teens event passed Friday with an estimated 800 to 1,000 people showing up with over 1,000 toys for our local, underprivileged children, who otherwise could not get any, or their parents would have to cut back on much needed essentials. Just to highlight a few items: Cascades Casino did an awesome job. The Buffet had an incredible variety of firstclass breakfast items. It was well organized and never run out of food. Thank you Cascades Casino general manager Michael Magnusson and all your staff.

Also a great deal of appreciation and thanks goes to Lorraine and Doug MacMillan, manager and owners of Canadian Tires, for taking charge of everything.

To mention a few others, as always the Penticton Rotary club was greeting all at the door and helped with the placing of the toys. The children’s choirs lent wonderfully to the occasion and helped with the Christmas spirit.

The students of Holy Cross School did a wonderful job with cleaning and bussing of the tables. When a party left, the table was cleaned and reset in less than a minute.

An additional delightful feature was the decorating of the gingerbread houses on the second floor by kindergarten ages. I was astounded how much talent some of those little folks have.

In addition to the above sponsors and support, I’d like to thank the Penticton Herald, Western News, IGA, Tim Hortons, New Country 100.7, SunFM, EZ Rock 800, Castanet and Loco Landing, plus everyone I may have missed.

Just a small History of this event. It started at the Penticton Inn and the first attempt was a failure. However, the second one in 1995 actually exploded. We expected and got ready for 300 people and 1,200 showed up! We ran out of space, food and staff. But somehow we survived it. What happened? I became a believer of the power of the media. The Penticton Herald, O.R. 800 and Global Okanagan did a number on us.

In 1999 when the owners of the Penticton Inn converted the hotel to the Prince Charles Manor it was game over. However, my friend David Prystay took the Toys for Tots to Teens over and hosted it at the Lakeside Hotel for almost two decades and spent thousands of dollars for it.

David, I’d like to thank you for this, as well as all the other good deeds you do for our community. Jack Swoboda Penticton