The U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots local drive organized by Councilman Lew Fidler’s 41st Assembly District Democratic Club is again the largest such drive in New York City for the eighth consecutive year, scoring 7,750 holiday gifts for needy and disadvantaged children.
While the number is impressive, an even more impressive number came out of it: 55,430. That’s the number of toys collected in the 13 years since the drive’s establishment in 2001, when they first bundled together just 79 toys for kids.
The event will continue in the future, but it’s the final year that Fidler will preside over it as a member of the City Council. He’s term limited out come January 1, to be succeeded by Assemblyman Alan Maisel. As the event wrapped up, Fidler gazed over the mountain of toys that covered nearly half the floor space of his club from floor to ceiling.
“This is what the holidays are supposed to be about. Not throwing yourself a party, not drinking a lot of egg nog. Helping children, that’s what we do. It’s great to look at this mountain of toys,” he told Sheepshead Bites. “Today was my last Council meeting. Yeah, it’s bittersweet, but at the end you look back and you know you had a good run, you didn’t waste anyone’s time, and I didn’t waste my time, and it’s very gratifying.”
Read more about the event, and see photos and video.
Our photographer sent this photo to us last month with the following note:
Spotted this yesterday while prowling the aisles [of Aldi Food Market]. I was actually looking for duck, but no dice.
I found the candor of their homemade sign quite charming and surreal.
Photo by Matt LES
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
Lifting a biblical quote. Hopefully Sheepshead Bites doesn’t have a Separation of Church and Blog News Website statute.
Photo by Bona Weiss
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
I am sure this is probably not an oak tree. If it is, yay! My headline matches the photo. If not, any arborists or botany experts out there know what this is?
Photo by Randy Contello / RandyCPhotography
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
Students from St. Mark School served as Santa’s little helpers at the event, piling the donated toys and greeting guests.
The Bay Improvement Group’s 23rd annual concert and toy drive on Sunday saw hundreds of toys piled on stage as Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge jammed for the crowd.
The 225 toys collected will go to a shelter for battered women and their children located in the heart of Sheepshead Bay. It’s a toy drive in our community that ensures toys stay with the needy of our community, said BIG Executive Director Steve Barrison.
“We have a battered women’s shelter down the block and they were not getting anything [from other drives]. And that’s really the heart of it,” Barrison told Sheepshead Bites at the event, which took place in the Baron DeKalb Knights of Columbus (3000 Emmons Avenue). “We’ve got to fill the need right here in our own community, and we know where the toys go.”
The event started 23 years ago, when Barrison and Martell, who previously met at a diner, decided to spend the holiday season driving around in a limo, popping out at random places and singing to pedestrians for donations for children’s toys. Since then, the event has moved around the neighborhood, including the old Lundy’s restaurant, various local businesses, several years at St. Mark School and now, for the first time, at the Knights.
The following is from our friends at the Brooklyn Streetcar Artists’ Group (BSAG):
Click to enlarge
Most people are familiar with the O Brother, Where Art Thou version of “I’ll Fly Away” by Alison Kraus and Gillian Welch, but I much prefer the Charley Pride version.
Photo by Max Bolotov
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
This is beautiful… the silhouette, the ocean, the sky… but what is she standing on? Moby Dick? Inquiring minds want to know.
Photo by Lisa DeFrancesco
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
Photo by Ella Rabinovich
Morning Mug is our daily showcase of photographs from our readers. If you have a photograph that you’d like to see featured, send them to [email protected].
