In Missoula, the Hutchison family, who runs the city's Toys for Tots campaign, started about two weeks ago, said Lauren Hutchison, daughter of Theresa and Carl Hutchison, two retired Marines.
The family went to a Web site of recalled toys, Lauren Hutchison said, and printed off pages of “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of recalled toys. All the volunteers are asked to go through it.”
On Dec. 21 and Dec. 22, the Missoula campaign will open its “toy store” in a donated empty storefront, and parents who previously signed up with the Salvation Army will be able to select toys and stocking stuffers for their children.
The book of recalled toys will be prominently on display then, too, so parents can be sure the toys are safe, Hutchison said.
Toys for Tots is a 60-year-old U.S. Marine Corps Reserve charity that gathers and distributes new toys for children who might otherwise have a sparse Christmas. Last year, the organization distributed more than 19 million toys to 7.6 million children.
This year, the national foundation asked all of its more than 500 campaigns nationwide to sift through the toys and remove any recalled items.
The toys come from many different sources, said Jim Heffernan, a retired Helena Marine who has run Helena's Toys for Tots campaign since 1978. In Helena, for example, about 350 toys are military action figures seized at the Canada-Montana border last year for copyright infringement. (Some of the figurines came with sidearms emblazoned with the official Beretta gun logo.)
Some of the toys come from the Toys for Tots Foundation and are donated directly from toymakers like Mattel. In the Salvation Army gymnasium, where the Helena Toys for Tots campaign is storing its toys and will set up its “toy store” later this month, dozens of Mattel boxes are stacked chest-high atop each other.
Some of the toys are donated by Toys “R” Us, which is one of the corporate sponsors of Toys for Tots. The company gave $2,000 to the Toys for Tots campaigns in both Missoula and Helena and $4,800 to the Billings campaign to be redeemed at any Toys “R” Us store.
Many of the toys are purchased locally by citizens and placed in the many Toys for Tots drop boxes throughout town.
But some are left over from last year, Heffernan said, and that is where most of the trouble lies.
Toy sellers pulled recalled toys from their shelves after the recalls were announced. Any toy purchased and donated after the recall is considered safe, Heffernan said. But last year's toys were donated before any recalls were announced.
Heffernan has several enormous bins of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of toys left over from last year that all must be sorted. He's organized 43 volunteers to begin such work starting today.
“All compliments of China,” Heffernan said wearily as he glanced over at the unsifted toys.
Volunteers in Butte sorted through many thousands of toys and came up with 14 or 15 recalled Barbie dolls, said Ernest Richards, coordinator of the Butte Toys for Tots campaign.
The Butte effort has already begun handing out toys, he said. Among other places, the Butte toys will end up at the Salvation Army and Human Resources. Workers there will “also be on the alert” about any recalled toys.
But, ultimately, Richards said, the responsibility falls to the parents.
The recalled toys will be sent back to the Toys for Tots national campaign, he said.
In Billings, about 45 Marine reservists did the sifting earlier this month, said Staff Sgt. Brian Dixon, an active Marine in Billings and coordinator of the city's Toys for Tots program.
The Marines counted and sorted up to 12,000 toys and didn't find a single recalled one.
“I thought we might have a few,” Dixon said. “All I'm doing (now) is just watching the news.”
The Billings campaign didn't have toys left over from last year, he said, which might explain why they found no recalled toys.
Toys still needed
Here's what Montana Toys for Tots coordinators say they still need this holiday season:
Billings: The Billings Toys for Tots campaign is still in need of gifts for infants and teenage boys and girls.
Missoula: The Missoula Toys for Tots campaign is short on gifts for infants and girls ages 6-10.
Helena: The Helena Toys for Tots campaign is in need of a warehouse next year to store its inventory and dropoff bins. If you would like to help, contact Jim Heffernan at 458-6256.
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