The 13th annual Toy Bus tour will collect donations this week for children in need.
The Toy Bus will make stops in Charlevoix, Beulah and Traverse City starting Wednesday.
The Toy Bus will make stops at:
Wednesday: Fox Motors in Charlevoix, 4 - 7 pm. Fox will give Great Wolf Lodge Water Park passes for every toy donation.
Thursday: A. Papano's Pizza, 4 - 7 pm. Free bread sticks will be given with a toy drop off. The Toy Bus is replaced by Toy Police Cars as several police agencies use their vehicles to transport toys they have collected.
Friday: Meijer in Traverse City, 8 am - 7 pm. Meijer will match the toys donated from their store on this day. The bus will be set up in the Burger King parking lot.
7&4 News will bring you live reports during the bus tour.
Friday is expected to be the biggest day of the week for the Toy Bus. Donations spike because Meijer in Traverse City matches every toy purchased from them that is donated to the bus that day. Last year Meijer donated $10,000 to the campaign.
The Friday event starts the day with a huge toy buy. Local heroes, including veterans, active military, police and firefighters, shop with students from Silver Lake and Westwoods elementary schools to spend donated cash. The money is used to purchase specific toy requests made by the recipient agencies.
Toys are distributed through every major human service agency in the region including; The Father Fred Foundation, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Benzie and Leelanau Family Independent Agencies, KAIR in Kalkaska, Mancelona Family Resource Center and the Northwest Michigan Child Guidance Center.
Last year the campaign collected and distributed 25,000 toys to more than 8,000 children and organizers say the need is even greater this year. Cash donations can be made to the local campaign through the national organization's website at www.ToysforTots.org. A list of drop off locations and a complete list of toy distribution agencies are also on the website.
The local campaign will wrap up on December 17th.
