Toys For Tots
2017 R1200RT - 2017 Radio Flyer Tricycle
It’s Here!!!
for boy and/or girl, ages 1 through 12, in the original packaging, NO toy guns, NO food. For me this was a NO-brainer. Good thing since mine doesn’t seem to be working nearly as good as it used to.
I have been looking forward to this ride for over a year. Last year the Toys For Tots ride was December 10th. The current group didn’t exist yet. Back then it was many of the same people, but a different group. I was in Atlanta getting familiar with a new client’s operations and systems configuration. I had purchased a new motorcycle, but it wouldn’t be delivered until the 19th. I knew the Toys ride was happening on the 10th and really wished I could participate. I mean – for me – kids are what Christmas is about. When you aren’t one, and you don’t have any around you, it all seems pretty boring and pointless. So, you end up going out and buying yourself a gift. Like a new motorcycle (“I wish ME a Merry Christmas♫ – I wish ME a Merry Christmas♫…”). Not THIS year. Well; I did buy myself a new motorcycle; but I also did participate in the Toys For Tots ride.
(I hear all of you out there saying it was never that great). Well, we are a motorcycle group. Right? We ride bikes. And, some of the group ride trikes. Right? When I think about being a kid I remember a lot of bikes and trikes. I remember spending countless hours on a bike. Close your eyes for a minute and think back. Think about the school playground, the little league field, the community swimming pool, or just the front yard of your house when your friends were over. What do you see? I see bikes. Bikes in bike racks. Bikes on their kickstands. Bikes laying on their sides. Back then a bike was, what a car would later become. More than just transportation. It was independence. It was freedom. It was the ability to go your own way in the world and become your own person.
So – I needed to buy a gift. The gift guidelines stated, new toy, unwrapped,
2
Me on my trike with my brother and his bike. (circa 1957)
Not just your parent’s kid. And, as you would expect, with that independence came responsibility. Our parents weren’t likely to chauffeur us everywhere. So, we were expected to get ourselves where we needed to be, safely and on time. Yes, bikes were good for everyone. And don’t even get me started on the health benefits.
too far. But those too, are valuable life learning experiences. I’m confident that getting an initial exposure to PTSD, at the age of 2, made me more resistant later in life. So – decision made – I was off to acquire said tricycle. Once at the store, I was immediately faced with exactly what I had feared. Apparently, people don’t let their kids make their own way in the world anymore. At least not before the age of 6 or 7. There were no tricycles to be found, not even a plastic one, and none of the bikes were smaller than a 20″.
So, I needed to take a bike or a trike, and a bike won’t fit on my bike – so – a trike it is. Yeah, I know, times have changed. Well I haven’t. So, I decided to give a kid a gift that could get them started on the road to an independent, responsible, adventurous life.
Several days later, just when I was about to surrender to the devastation of the participation trophy culture, Lori called. She had not only found a tricycle, it, was a Radio Flyer! An actual, honest to god, steel tricycle from the days of my youth. It took a couple of trips to the store to get one with all the parts, they make them in China now, not Chicago, but eventually we had our very own Radio Flyer tricycle. The kid is going to LOVE it. All that was
Now, if you’re going to put that type of burden on a tricycle, it damn well better be a good one. It, like a Timex, needs to be able to take a licking and keep on ticking. It needs to be made of steel, like ours. None of that plastic crap. I still remember one terrifying afternoon on a tricycle that my grandmother had ridden as a child. But that’s another story. Suffice it to say that sometimes we take that freedom thing
3
left to do was wait for the day of the ride and attach the tricycle to the motorcycle so it would stay in place. All was right with the world again.
The tricycle DID make the ride. I tend to stay up late, while Lori tends to get up early. So, I lashed the tricycle to the motorcycle the night before the ride.
(A word of caution. If you do this yourself, DON’T put the tricycle under the Christmas Tree. It makes it feel like Christmas back when you were, or had, a kid. It so significantly changes the effect of the tree; you’re going to be tempted to keep it as a Christmas decoration. I was beginning to get concerned that Lori may hide it on the morning of the ride.)
I sincerely hope, that like millions of members of my generation did over 60 years ago, the little boy or girl who receives the tricycle, finds countless hours of joy, peddling their way along all of the grand adventures their imagination can conceive.
Disney Created Toys For Tots Logo
Click To Play Theme Song
In Los Angeles, in 1947, Diane Hendricks, wife of Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, tried to donate a homemade Raggedy Ann doll to a needy child. Unfortunately, she was unable to locate any organization which could deliver the toy. Inspired by her efforts, and at her suggestion, Major Hendricks gathered a group of local Marine reservists, including Lieutenant Colonel John Hampton. Together, that year, they coordinated and collected some 5,000 toys for local children from collection bins placed outside Warner Bros. movie theaters.
From its beginnings in 1947, until 1979, Marine reservists, frequently in their dress blue uniforms, together with volunteers, would collect and refurbish used toys. Beginning in 1980 only new toys were accepted. Reservists no longer being able to dedicate drill hours to refurbish toys, concerns expressed about the possible mixed message being sent by giving hand-medowns as a message of hope, and the rise of legal concerns, all contributed to the change in policy. In 1991, the Secretary of Defense authorized the creation of, and affiliation with, the non-profit charity foundation. In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve.
In 1948, due to the previous year’s success, Toys for Tots was launched as a national campaign. Hendricks used his position as director of Public Relations for Warner Brothers Studio to enlist cele rity support, as well as have Walt Disney Studios design the red toy train logo. A theme song for the program was written in 1956 by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, and would be recorded by Nat King Cole, among others.
In 1996, noting that many communities did not have a Marine reservist presence, the commander of the Marine Forces Reserve authorized Marine Corps League detachments and other local organizations
4
to fill the gaps in toy collection and distribution.
placed the first collection box at the White House. In December 2011, she took part in a Toys for Tots activity at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
In 2009, the program received support from First Lady Michelle Obama, who
Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity located in Triangle, Virginia, serves to fund, raise funds for, and support the program. As of 2016, the Toys for Tots Program and Foundation have collected and distributed more than 512 million toys. Toys for Tots’ Mission “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.” Toys for Tots’ Stated Goal “is to deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, and patriotic citizens.” Notable achievements • 2003 Outstanding Nonprofit Organization of the Year (DMA NPF) • Reader’s Digest Best Children’s Charity of 2003 • One of the top 10 charities of 2003 on the Forbes “Gold Star” list. • Charity Navigator four star ratings in both 2005 and 2006.
RADIO FLYER In 1917, in Chicago, Antonio Pasin, a craftsman who built and sold phonograph cabinets, started building small wooden wagons to carry his tools. After he r ceived numerous requests from customers of phonograph cabinets to buy the wagons as well, he refocused his business on the wagons. The popularity of his wagons eventually led Pasin to form the Liberty Coaster Company, named in honor of the Statue of Liberty, in 1923. The demands for these original wooden wagons, dubbed the “Liberty Coaster,” quickly outpaced production. To meet the demand, he adopted the mass production techniques of the auto industry, Pasin began making metal wagons out of stamped steel in 1927.
Child With A Radio Flyer Wagon
In 1930 Pasin renamed the company, Radio Steel & Manufacturing, and renamed the wagons, Radio Flyer. The wagons
5
were named as a tribute to two famous men of the day: Marconi and Lindbergh. Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi developed, demonstrated, and marketed the first successful long-distance wireless telegraph and in 1901 broadcast the first transatlantic radio signal. Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1927. The popularity of the wagons continued, and 1500 wagons rolled off assembly lines, each day, even during the Great Depression. In 1987, Radio Steel changed its name to Radio Flyer after its popular flagship little red wagon.
Today, the company produces a wide range of children’s products, including scooters, tricycles, ride-ons, horses, battery ops, and wagons. In 2015, Fortune named Radio Flyer number one in the top 25 best small businessefor which to work. The Radio Flyer Wagon was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York in 1999, and its creator, Antonio Pasin, was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2003.
Robert Pasin, Antonio’s grandson, has been CEO since 1997.
Christmas Party & Officer Elections Dec 16 - 11am-3pm Good News Church St Augustine
Click To Register - Bring A Toy - Enjoy A Meal
REGISTER The article above is a reprint from a post I published on my Changing Gears Blog a few years ago. I’m reviving Changing Gears as a digital motorcycle magazine, free for the asking. Just visit my Changing Gears Info Web Page and let me know how to send you links to issues as the become available.
CLICK TO REQUEST 6