Despite economy, annual toy drive a success

The Marv Stubbs Memorial Toy Drive wrapped up last Saturday at
the Windsor Grange Hall by sending Windsor families home with more
than 400 gifts.
“Clearly, you could see the need for toys on Saturday with more
than 400 people waiting in line,” said Windsor Battalion Chief Matt
Gustafson. “In the end everyone walked away with a toy.”
Windsor Fire approached the Windsor Kiwanis Club last month and
asked if the annual toy drive could be named in honor of Marv
Stubbs, a longtime community champion and toy drive organizer who
passed away in September at the age of 72 from cancer.
While the name has changed, it’s business as usual for Windsor
Kiwanis. The club rallied to put out gift bins throughout town and
came together last week to wrap them all at Round Table Pizza. They
then sent out a gift buying crew to buy extra gifts to make sure
everyone went home with something.
“These people deserve a huge thumbs up,” said Gustafson. “It’s a
big job and they did great.”
Betty Stubbs said this year was a challenge. “This year’s
response wasn’t as great as it’s been, but that’s the economy,” she
said. In years past, the Kiwanis Club has purchased gifts
throughout the toy drive. This year, for the first time, they held
on to their money and waited until all the gifts had been
collected. Then, they took the money left over and filled in the
gaps.
“It’s the first time we’ve delayed this long in buying
additional toys,” said Kiwanis member Bob Crawford. “We think every
kid should have toys around Christmas, and for those who don’t,
we’ll see that they get something.”
Once all the toys had been collected, the Kiwanis met up with
firefighters and members of the Windsor High School Key Club and
wrapped the gifts together. Then on Saturday they handed out the
gifts at the Grange Hall while the Windsor Service Alliance passed
out baskets of food to needy families.
“There were so many different things,” said Stubbs. “Of course
there were dolls for the girls, paint sets, crafty items, and
books. For the boys there were a lot of battery operated cars,
basketball, footballs, soccer balls. We had lots of games. Teddy
bears and dogs and monkey that kids love to snuggle with.”
Betty said Marv would have been happy to see the drive come to a
successful end. “He probably would have thought it was an ordinary
year, but he would have been thrilled to death that it was named
for him, for sure,” she said. “He was just always so happy to be
able to work with anyone in the community who needed toys for their
children.”