While Santa is preparing to stuff stockings this holiday season, the Ventura County branch of Toys for Tots is getting ready to stuff school buses with toys for needy children.
It all started when three Ventura Unified bus drivers decided they wanted to give back to the community. Cyndi Lynch, Melissa Pederson, and Marcie Youtv became involved with Toys for Tots, and put together a program called Stuff a School Bus.
“We don’t want any child to feel like there’s no Santa this year,” said Pederson.
This Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m, the organizers will be collecting toys. They hope to gather enough to stuff five school buses, but Lynch believes they may be able to stuff 10 to 15.
Lynch admits that it will take a huge amount of toys to hit that goal.
“There are needy families in Ventura,” she said. “There are several homeless families in the district.”
Students are encouraged to volunteer at the event and to donate unused toys to the box at their school.
This is the first year Stuff a School Bus has set up a toy drive, but the three founders hope it will become a holiday tradition for the district.
“This is groundbreaking,” Lynch said. “We’re hoping it will pave the way for other school districts.”
Many schools in Ventura County have already made contributions. A parent at Mound Elementary School donated $500 worth of new toys.
Foothill is involved with the program, and there is a donation box in English and Psychology teacher Melanie Lindsey’s classroom. So far, donations have been scarce.
“The only stuff in there right now is what I put in there,” Lindsey said.
Everyone is encouraged to add new, unwrapped toys to the box. Pederson suggests giving toys to the two categories that are usually the most lacking: ages 0-3 years old and girls ages 10-15.
For the babies, Pederson suggests anything that makes them use hands and motor skills, such as wooden blocks. For girls 10-15, she recommends Littlest Pet Shop sets or similar toys.
Over 100 volunteers, including many students and almost every school bus driver in the district, will be stuffing the school buses in the parking lot of the Target on East Main Street in Ventura. There will also be a place where people can drop off their donations at a drive-thru.
