‘This means everything to my family’
Volunteer elves distribute Toys for Tots in West Mifflin
By virtue of the amount of work he has put in this year to organize the Pittsburgh region’s annual joy-giving Toys for Tots program, Marine 1st Sgt. Jason Polanco deserves the moniker of honorary Santa Claus.
After all, the 35-year-old career Marine was wearing a red hoodie Friday morning as he oversaw 65 fellow Marines and volunteers who were distributing toys to thousands of parents at a former Sam’s Club in West Mifflin on the first of two days of the toy giveaway.
Barely a minute would pass Friday that he was not answering a question about where this toy might be, or how to fill that request, or some other question only Santa would know the answer to.
But Sgt. Polanco, ever the leader, was having none of it.
“No, no,” he said humbly, despite working nearly full time overseeing the program for the past three months outside of his day job of leading the 4th Law Enforcement Battalion Bravo Company Marines Reserve unit in North Versailles. “I’d say the people who gave the toys are the Santas. I’m just an elf.”
Well, that elf and his fellow elves sure managed to do a good collective impression of Santa.
Thatwas the perspective of every parent who walked away with a bag or two full of presents for their kids —presents they otherwise would not have gotten in families where either the economic success of the Pittsburgh region has not yet reached ,or tragedy had struck.
“I lost everything in a fire last month in New Kensington,” Heather Tucker, 36, who works in home care and is homeless but living with a friend in Homestead, said after picking up toys — including a new bike — for her four sons, who range in age from 6 to 18.
“Ithas been the worst Christmas ever so far, but this will brighten it up quite a bit,” she said. “This means everything to my family. I’m ready to cry. If it wasn’t for this program, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Toys for Tots had to move the location of this year’s North Pole to the former Sam’s Club that now functions as a warehouse at 2930 Lebanon Church Road in West Mifflin. The building owner, TMD Holdings, agreed to provide the space after the former location in a Guardian Storage facility in the Strip District began renovations and could not be used, Sgt. Polanco said.
The program was overseen by the Marines, with volunteer support from the Pittsburgh Cares organization, Highmark Health and students from Brentwood High School. Many of the program’s toys were donated.
About $170,000 was raised to buy still more toys, including funding from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Goodfellows fund.
On top of all of that, Kennywood Park spokesman Nick Paradise showed up to distribute 955 free tickets — one for each member of a family — for admission to the park next year.
The figure was based on a pledge the park made to give away a ticket for every season pass purchased on a Tuesday Day of Giving this year.
“Oh, wow!” said a woman as Mr. Paradise handed her four tickets as she sat in her car. “This is going in an envelope and under the tree for my kids, too!”
Friday and Saturday’s toy distribution represented only about one-fifth of all the toys the program purchased and collected. The rest have been distributed over the past three months to about 250 nonprofits across the region who have their own toy giveaways.
“We’ve filled this space up and emptied it five times already,” said Sgt. Polanco, who grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, N.Y., and just moved to Pittsburgh with his wife and two daughters — 3- and 11years-old — in July for a three-year assignment.
The dozens of 4-foot-high cardboard bins organized by gender and age in the warehouse were pored over all morning by the volunteers who collected lists of the number of children and their ages that parents provided.
Sabrina Sandt, 17, a senior at Brentwood High School, and her friend, Angel Turner, 16, a junior, worked as a team to fill one mom’s request for five children, filling three plastic bags for the three boys and two girls, picking two large gifts and several stocking stuffers for each of them.
Volunteering for the day “is humbling,” said Angel. “You see the need. And it makes you happy that you can do this for kids.”
The mom they were gathering presents for, Elnora Lash, 36, of the North Side, said it was the first time she had ever come to Toys for Tots.
“This means a lot,” she said. “We couldn’t buy anything with all the bills we have.”
She has a job, driving for Access, which provides rides to the elderly in the county.
But this past year she had a difficult pregnancy, entering the hospital a month before she gave birth, and then having to stay through April after her son was born. He is healthy now, but he had to stay in the hospital until June. She was still recovering herself until August and lost seven months of income, which took a toll.
“We’re still working our way back from that,” she said of herself and her fiance. “Next year, I hope we’re in a better position and I hope I can help and donate toys myself.”
The toy giveaway continues from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the former Sam’s Club across from the Allegheny County Airport. Participants must bring a valid government-issued ID, such as a driver’s license; an Access card or proof of government assistance/unemployment; a birth certificate for each child; and a utility bill, phone bill or other proof that you live at the physical address listed on your other information.
Readers who want to help the Toys for Tots programs can make tax-deductible contributions to the Goodfellows Fund using the coupon that accompanies this story or online at www.post-gazette.com/ goodfellows.
As part of the holiday tradition, the Post-Gazette acknowledges all donations in the newspaper.