Every holiday season, members of the community come together to contribute to Toys for Tots, a campaign focused on providing toys to children in need. For the third year in a row, Key Club will host a Toys for Tots pep rally Nov. 20.
“Toys for Tots specifically stays within our general location,” Key Club Sponsor Abbigayle Marion said. “I think that’s super cool that we’re directly helping kids who one day might be Broncos.”
Members of Key Club worked to design T-shirts available for students to purchase. Each shirt is $20 and covers the cost of a ticket to the pep rally. The shirts will be available to purchase via the online store through Nov. 10 and can be picked up in Ms. Marion’s room (T-207) on Nov. 19. All proceeds from ticket and shirt sales will go toward Key Club’s spending fund for buying toys.
“My favorite part of Toys for Tots is probably seeing the amount of toys that we wind up with at the end,” Key Club Vice President Victoria Parsons, 12, said. “Just thinking about all of the kids that we’re getting to positively benefit from that, it’s incredible. We wind up with so many every year, and it’s awesome.”
The pep rally will feature a staff vs. student basketball game, student-led halftime performance and festive games. Students wishing to participate can inform Ms. Marion and get their name included in a hat draw to determine teams. Key Club members will sell tickets during all lunches, Nov. 12-20.
“The goal is to entertain the people that are going to be there, but to make it worth the money that they’re spending,” Parsons said, “but ultimately our goal is to get toys to kids in need. And this is just a fun way that we can do that and entertain the student body, but also work together for a greater common goal.”
When Key Club took over Toys for Tots, they worked toward gaining 1,000 donations. Now, three years later, the goal stands at 2,000, encouraged by last year’s numbers of around 1,500 toys. As Lake Ridge holds the title of most toys donated for the past decade, Ms. Marion hopes to surpass the Eagles.
“Mentally, that would be a huge win — if we could double [our numbers] in just four short years,” Ms. Marion said. “We work hard on this every year and every year it’s gotten bigger and better. It would be ego-boosting, but also a relief to finally say we beat [Lake Ridge].”
The toys and money donated will be shown at the annual Toys for Tots festival at the Center of Performing Arts on Dec. 3. Key Club will present a booth at the festival with hopes to later participate in the parade. Ms. Marion appreciates the work the community puts into the campaign and looks forward to seeing what the campus can do.
“It’s going to take a full concerted effort throughout the school to win this year’s district competition,” Ms. Marion said, “but I think if everyone just buys one toy or buys a ticket, then I think we could win it easily.”
