Toys For Tots Fundraiser A Success Among Borough Departments

With the pandemic taking away so much from children this year, the Borough of Ellwood City wanted to help make sure Christmas was not on the list.

The borough held a Toys for Tots challenge among their departments over the holidays and generosity kicked into high gear.

Randy Gatto, Public Works Director, and Rhiannon Schnell, Public Works Secretary, organized the drive that started in early November.  Schnell had previous experiences with Toys for Tots campaigns when she previously worked at McElwains and was happy to start something within the Borough.

“The Borough of Ellwood City has the best group of employees and residents,” said Schnell. “This was a tough year for so many families, but in true hometown fashion, Ellwood City showed up with toys in hand for the kids.”

The campaign was fun and a challenge to all the departments to see who could collect the most toys.

According to Schnell it was a bit difficult to collect toys because the borough buildings were closed to the public but employees made the best of the situation and got creative.

“Randy and I set up a toy box to collect as people lined up for the drive thru light up night parade,” said Schnell.

At the conclusion of the drive, the tallies came in and the Ellwood City Fire Department came out on top, collecting the most toys for the campaign.

The fire department is a group of devoted men and women who care about their community so much that they would lay down their lives for complete strangers. The toys for tots drive shows how much we care for even the smallest members of our community,” said Fire Chief Rick Meyers. “We hope that we made alot of Christmases that much better this year with the donations we brought in. This time though it’s the community members who are the hero’s. They donated so many toys and we couldn’t be prouder of our community.”

Although there were no unique toys or notable collectibles donated, according to Schnell all donors’ hearts were completely invested in making the drive a success.

“We are thankful to live in a community of big hearts! Thank you to everyone that joined in to make the toy drive a success. We are planning collections for 2021 already so stay tuned Ellwoodians!”