Toys for Tots is an organization that collects donated toys and redistributes them to less fortunate children to help share the magic of the holidays. And every year Pacifica High School’s Mrs. Montgomery would announce on Triton Talk about the Toy Drive to collect toys and to donate to Toys for Tots, and occasionally even directly to the Pacifica High School students who had younger brother and sister wouldn’t have gotten a gift otherwise.

With a record of 93 collected bikes last year, these bikes brought joy to all the children that were able to get one, and this year did not disappoint. Although Mrs. Montgomery is no longer the main coordinator for our toy drive, this honor has been handed to the TECA Academy, with Mrs. Montgomery is still helping out with the Toy Drive.

One of the things that changed with the new coordinators is that instead of solely focusing on bicycles, TECA has been focused on collecting toy for the overall distribution, allowing more kids in need to receive something for Christmas.

Because TECA is now handling the Toy Drive, they collect toys toys from the students by having TECA students go through each building asking each classroom if any students had brought any toys for the Toy Drive, so that students, new or old, wouldn’t have to worry about finding the classroom and if the student doesn’t have the time to deliver it they could just wait for them to come around to their classroom to pick it up.

Another change to the Toy Drive is that in every classroom there is now a donation folder that student can directly donate money to the Toy Drive regardless of what classroom they are in. This will help with the same problem of trying to finding the center of operations for the Toy Drive and lessen the hassle of choosing what toy to donate towards the Toy Drive.

Not only has this change made the process of donations easier, but it also allows TECA students gain more experiences in helping children in a more direct level. The Toy Drive is really great event that help a lot of children every year and spreads Christmas spirit.