13,000 Toys Delivered on Three Kings Day
 PVNN
| | Toys for Tots delivers miles of smiles: On January 7, 2009, Toys for Tots Vallarta distributed more than 13,000 toys to some of the poorest kids in the Banderas Bay region. (Dale Hansen) | |
Puerto Vallarta - Smiles were in great abundance throughout the Bahía on January 7th, Three Kings Day. Toys for Tots, in its 10th year locally of reaching out to some of the poorest kids in the region, raised enough funds at the December 13 golf outing and gala dinner-dance to acquire more than 13,000 toys this year.
 Combined with other donations throughout the year, this resulted in another record year of gift giving. Every peso raised went towards buying toys and covering all expenses, and all work is performed by volunteers. How's that for putting your money to work for charity!
From a humble beginning of 1,000 toys in 1999, the more than 8-fold increase in fundraising over the last seven years has been due to a growing list of generous sponsors and a warm embrace of the program by local residents.
The organizing committee of Toys for Tots, including Jeff Miltenberger, Bill Clark and other members of the Navy League, U.S. Consular Agent Kelly Trainor, Dennis Whitelaw and the entire staff at the Marriott, would like to thank the many volunteers and local sponsors, and more than 200 PV residents and visitors who attended the fundraisers.
On January 7th at 7 am all the volunteers started to arrive at the CasaMagna Marriott parking lot, where the hotel's staff was waiting for them with hot chocolate and traditional Rosca de Reyes to start the journey that would bring more than 13,000 smiles from local children. The five teams subdivided into 9 routes, which carried the toys on all kinds of vehicles including Navy trucks, Vallarta Adventures Unimogs, DIF, Canopy Los Veranos and Marriott vans as well as the private cars of some volunteers.
More than 13,000 children benefited from this program, the volunteers were drawing smiles on children's faces in places like; Cabo Corrientes, El Tuito, Tehuamixtle, Boca de Tomatlán, Mismaloya, Las Palmas del Progreso, El Progreso, 12 de Octubre, Los Volcanes, Las Mojoneras, Magisterio, Loma Bonita, Joyas del Pedregal, La Floresta, Brisas del Pacifico, Ixtapa, Las Palmas, El Zancudo, Tebelchía, La Desembocada, Soyatán, La Estancia, San Sebastián Real del Alto, Mezcalitos, Laguna, Tondoroque, Higuera Blanca, Sayulita, Guamúchil, San Quintín, San Ignacio, La Peñita, El Colomo, Chacala, La Ceiba, El Carrizo, Los Sauces and Aguamilpa.
Many Thanks to all of the sponsors and volunteers for a job well done! |
Vallarta Weddings
News from Around Banderas Bay | January 2009 
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