'Another Good Year': Beverly Veterans Services Collects Record Toys For Tots Donations
BEVERLY, MA — A record season of giving in Beverly and on the North Shore culminated with Beverly Veterans Services Officer David Perinchief presenting Marine Corps Reserve Toys For Tots a $25,000 donation from Sylvania and three shipping containers full of toys for children in need ahead of the Christmas holiday.
First Sgt. Brian Comstra was in Beverly to collect the donations from the year-round dropoff location on Herrick Street.
“We emptied three shipping containers worth of Toys For Tots this year,” Perinchief told Patch on Friday. “It’s one more shipping container than last year. There were definitely a lot more people donating, a lot more people reaching out.
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“This was another good year.”
This is the third year Beverly Veterans Services has run its Toys For Tots program after establishing the office as a year-round donation site. Those still wishing to do so can drop off toys at the office for the Christmas in July program Toys for Tots ran locally last year and intends to continue.
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“We are hoping to reach out to schools in Hamilton, Danvers, Peabody — basically everything up and down the North Shore — so hopefully some school officials will get back to us about kids in their districts who are eligible so we can give out even more toys this year,” Perinchief said.
Perinchief said the Beverly location also made donations to children at Beverly Hospital and intends to extend that offer to Boston Children’s Hospital as well.
Marine Toys for Tots Foundation was created at the behest of the U. S. Marine Corps and provides support in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commander, Marine Forces Reserve, who directs the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The Foundation has supported Toys for Tots since 1991.
The mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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