100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#63. Greg Gardiner's Inspiring Journey: From Marine Brotherhood to Publishing Success, Transforming Lives with Toys for Tots, and Celebrating Community Spirit in Humboldt County
Greg Gardiner's journey from Illinois to Humboldt County is nothing short of inspiring. As a Marine Corps veteran and committed community member, Greg has poured his passion into making a difference through initiatives like Toys for Tots. In this episode, we explore Greg's life story—his career in publishing with "101 Things to Do," his deep-rooted sense of service, and the unbreakable bonds he shares with fellow Marines. We also get a glimpse into Greg's family life, with his children and grandchildren spread across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, underscoring the love and dedication that fuel his work.
The heartwarming tales of generosity from the Toys for Tots program in Humboldt County are bound to touch your soul. Discover how a small effort blossomed into a massive community project, serving nearly 11,000 kids annually, thanks to the unwavering support from local businesses and volunteers. Listen as we recount moving stories of individuals who go out of their way to help others, even when they themselves are in need. The efforts of organizations like Blue Lake Casino and Rancheria, alongside numerous volunteers, ensure that each child receives a gift, highlighting the true spirit of giving during the holidays.
Join us in celebrating the joy of giving, as we share stories of Santa Claus delivering customized toys to children with disabilities and the logistics behind distributing toys to remote areas. Greg shares insights into the meticulous planning and year-round efforts required to make the toy drive a success. These initiatives not only bring cheer to children but also create a lasting legacy of community service in Humboldt County. We invite you to be part of this incredible journey and experience the fulfillment that comes from bringing smiles to children during the holiday season.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
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Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, my new best friend, greg Gardner. Hi, greg, hi. And I'm Scott Hammond on the 100% Humboldt podcast.
Speaker 2:Good to have you. I don't know about new best friend, but friends for a long time, friends for a while.
Speaker 1:Hey, greg Gardner, tell us your story. How did you get to Humboldt, and who are you, what are you about? And then we'll talk.
Speaker 2:I think we're here for we're talking about Toys for Tots, but I'll answer your question. A little over 20 years ago, there was an opportunity to buy a publication here and I was at a turning point where looking for something else to do and came and took a look at it and fell in love with Humboldt County. It is incredibly beautiful, yeah. And so came over and we started a publication called 101 Things to Do. We bought an existing publication, changed it over and ended up having visitor publications up down the coast.
Speaker 2:And it's been a great opportunity for me not only to fall in love with Humboldt, but all of Northern California. It's a beautiful place to live, it's a beautiful place to visit and it's a wonderful place to tell people about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you like about Humboldt specifically?
Speaker 2:Well, when you look at all the things that are available here, it's pretty incredible. I mean, you have the bay and you have the Pacific Ocean Start with that. I mean that's a winner and you have these incredible mountain ranges that just add so much to the landscape. And then throw in six raging rivers and some phenomenal, unbelievable redwood trees and you have magic and some people that are salt of the earth.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's wonderful people here, maybe like you and me, or at least you, so I haven't really asked this. Where did you and me, or at least you? So I would really ask this when did you go to school and where did you grow up? And when you said, come over, did you come over from Hawaii?
Speaker 2:Well, I was born in San Francisco, grew up in Illinois and went in the Marine Corps. After the Marine Corps I started doing, you know, like many entrepreneurs, many different things before I found my niche and ended up in the publishing business in Hawaii for a little over 20 years and had some opportunities to work in community service. You know, that's one of my things I like to focus on is giving back to the communities, and so did that there and moved here and have worked in community service here as well, donating my time and whatever ability I have. And, of course, toys for Tots is part of that evolution. I've been involved with Toys for Tots now for 18 years.
Speaker 1:Not so fast with the segue. I see where that was going. Yeah, real quick. Thank you for your service in the Marine Corps, but thank you for your service helping Humboldt Heroes. I couldn't have did much of what we've done for eight years without your help and your team and your expertise, and certainly the Marine Corps, the local Marine Corps cadre, which is the reserve.
Speaker 2:There's a Marine Corps league here.
Speaker 1:League yeah.
Speaker 2:There's no Marine Corps reserves or anything like that. You got to get down south to be able to find guys that are actually still wearing the uniform.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, but these guys are. You guys are like as one. Whenever there's a Marine being recognized as a hero, the whole team seems to show up.
Speaker 2:Well, the Marines, I think, have a what's the right word here A culture. Well, it's a culture, but it's more than that. It's more than a community. It's a brotherhood that I think many of the other services have to a degree, but not to the same degree. The Marines are steadfast in their support for each other and, unlike other branches of the Marine Corps or other branches of the service, you're a Marine for life. Yeah, so you're not a former Marine, you're not a past Marine. You can be a Marine veteran or you're a Marine, but you are a Marine. You're going to be a Marine for a while. You are.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Once you sign up, you get all the goods.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So are you a dad, a grandpa.
Speaker 2:I am a dad and I am a grandpa. My son has five kids, and then again we have a second marriage, and so my wife Kathy has two kids, which I consider mine as well. Sure, that's great. Where?
Speaker 1:does your son live?
Speaker 2:My son lives in Arizona, right in a little place called Goodyear, and he's an IT guy, and my daughter lives in Erie, pennsylvania, and she's a teacher. A little farther to go see her. Well, we're spread out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, community service, I think, is your middle name. I've seen you do it. I know the IFPA was the free paper association you were part of and I was part of the Tri-City Weekly paper here in Humboldt. A lot of people will remember that free paper and we're for a guy named Ron Pelleggi who always spoke very highly of you and some of the inroads that you made for the small guy paper. They're not incorporated. They're not Gannett.
Speaker 2:They're not giant Thompson. Ron's a great guy. Community misses him.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep, ron Shout out to Ron Pelleggi. So tell us about this thing. What is Toys for Tots? Give us the history. What's the story?
Speaker 2:Well, the story goes back after World War II. There was a major at the time. His name was Hendricks and he worked for Warner Brothers in their public relations department and if you really want to know the real birth, it was probably his wife, diane. She and her friends made a bunch of toys for kids. She went to him and said why don't you help me distribute these toys? So, sure enough, being in the reserves at the time, sure enough, being in the reserves at the time, he and his fellow Marines decided to do that and they distributed lots of toys throughout the Los Angeles area. And he was buddies with a guy by the name of Walt Disney. You may have heard of him before Disney. That rings a bell and they were good friends. And Walt Disney drew our Toys for Tots logo that you can see right here. That is Walt Disney in 1948 and still using it to this day. How about that? It's iconic. It is iconic.
Speaker 2:And it's a great logo. A few years later, the Marine Corps adopted this as a national program and started to roll it out to various communities where Marines were to share the joy of Christmas, to make sure that children had the opportunity to experience the same magic at Christmastime that you and I did growing up being able to open up a toy, and it's a real meaningful point in a child's life. You know to have something at Christmas time and it's also meaningful for their parents who you know are struggling and may not be able to do that.
Speaker 2:To be able to interact with their child at Christmasmastime and be able to give them a beautiful gift really is magic, and so that's part of it. We also believe that that's going to help make them a better part of society as well. Imagine waking up on Christmas morning and not having anything, and what that would be like for you. I mean just right then. At that moment it's devastating. But it doesn't get any better when you go out and you're talking to your friends in the playground and what did you get, scott? And Scott says well, or he makes up a story because he doesn't want to be embarrassed.
Speaker 2:And you carry that with you your whole life and we believe it's an opportunity to help fix some of those problems and to help children enjoy the beautiful Christmas spirit and Christmastime.
Speaker 1:I love it, well said. So how are the toys collected and how are they distributed?
Speaker 2:Well, those are great questions Going back to 1948, so it started there and then over the years, the program has grown across our great nation and now there's 830 coordinators, just like me, across our country delivering over 23 million toys across our nation. Wow, and you're the coordinator for Humboldt County. I am, I am. There are different size coordinators there's small, there's medium and large. We're considered large, there's extra large, and then there's jumbo. Jumbo would be like Atlanta, you know where they're doing 200,000 kids Last year.
Speaker 2:We have two programs, but in our main program we did over 8,000 kids. In our Native American program we did an additional 2,000 kids. In our Native American program we did an additional 2,000 kids. So we did a little over almost by the time we put both together about 11,000 kids and the program has grown. When we started off, when I took over the program as coordinator, we had 367 kids. So it's grown a bunch. But many of those early volunteers are still with us today. Back in the mid-'80s, a guy by the name of Bob Gooch, who you may have met, bob, I know Bob. Bob is a retired gunnery sergeant and also retired from the Sheriff's Department. Shout out to Bob Gooch.
Speaker 1:Hey.
Speaker 2:Bob. So Bob and his wife Nancy. Bob was here on recruiting duty at the time. He kind of came back home and a fellow friend of his who was a motorcyclist had collected some toys and brought them to Bob and said will you help hand them out? Bob didn't know about the Toys for Tots program at that time but he quickly learned. And as he learned, you know, the program grew and then of course Bob got transferred and the program was, you know, sort of dormant for a while and then the Marine Corps League took it over and did a little bit and then I came along, you know, a few years later, around 2005. And I've been involved in the program since 2005.
Speaker 1:Quick aside were you part of Honor Flight too, taking World War II vets back?
Speaker 2:One of the most wonderful things I've ever had the privilege to be involved with. Steve Justice and I co-chaired Honor Flight and we took about 400 veterans back to Washington DC to see the memorials that were created in their honor. And we've done the World War II in Koreans and we're looking at trying to get it started again for the Vietnam vets if we can get Honor Flight National to support us.
Speaker 1:That'd be great. Yeah, no, I was the Marine Corps League also involved in that.
Speaker 2:Well as were so many members of our great yeah, no, I was. Was the Marine Corps League also involved in that? Well as as as were so many members of our community? Yeah, you can't do anything like that unless the community comes back and supports you, and the community overwhelmingly supported that effort.
Speaker 1:That thing was amazing. So, yeah, good on you guys for doing that. So it was our honor. So I have a Toys for Tots story. It was our honor, so I have a Toys for Tots story. We had a lady come in yesterday from Masonical and she on behalf of all the gals in there I forgot the camellia cadre. Anyway, they brought in, you know, half a dozen toys and she was putting them in the barrel very carefully and wanted to make sure that we understood where those came from and I couldn't have thanked her more and it's just heartwarming to be part of the team, be part of the cycle, so let's talk about that. So, distribution of barrels so we have a barrel and a coin can, which I wanted to bring my can in here but for a prop, to show what those look like so that people would know where to put the money. So those are distributed. Tell me more.
Speaker 2:Well, when the program has grown to such a level, it takes all kinds of different things to make it work, to make sure that we don't have to wake up on Christmas morning knowing that someone who needed a toy didn't get a toy.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:So that's always been a concern and in our early days there were some of those mornings and those are just gut-wrenching things. You work real hard and can't do it as we picked up sponsors along the way. We've been able to do that Some years back and we have a lot of wonderful sponsors. I'll just name a few of them, please do. But our main sponsors is Blue Lake Casino and Blue Lake Rancheria. Arla Ramsey initially saw our program and wanted to get behind it, and they've been behind it ever since that and so they've helped us in so many ways and so they've helped us in so many ways.
Speaker 2:One of the great things about Toys for Tots is if you donate to Toys for Tots on a national level, 97% of the money that people donate actually goes to buying a toy. That's amazing. 3% goes to fundraising expenses. No percent goes towards salaries Wow, no percent. But here in Humboldt County that 3% is picked up by Blue Lake. So if you donate money to us in Humboldt County, first of all it stays here. It'd be spent here for kids that live here Wow. And second of all, every dollar, 100% of it goes towards buying a toy. So there's no overhead at all here. That's done by that, because Blue Lake Casino has been so gracious and so generous to do that for us and they've just been a wonderful partner. That's so cool.
Speaker 2:We're also blessed to have a great partnership with Green Diamond. They give us a warehouse space throughout the year so we and again with Blue Lake's help we're able to buy some toys, and you know, in late February and March, you know, for you know 20 or 25 cents on the dollar because they're on sale and so because of the great people at Green Diamond Resource Company, we have a place to keep them. And and the Christine and John Moore Berg Foundation have been huge supporters. I mean, there's a list goes on and on of folks that have supported us. Recology, murphy's Market, humboldt, moving and Storage this year jumped in. I'll tell you a little bit more about that. Humboldt, cal Poly you see Cal Poly on there yeah.
Speaker 2:They had a basketball game where the admission was a toy Wow. And Santa Claus was there this last weekend. And of course we've had Rotary, who's been involved from the very beginning. Eureka National Foods, hill Fickers Call out Tracy Day. I see her on your list. Tracy Day as well. Shout out to Tracy Day. A lot of folks have been out there helping us. Coast Central has been a great supporter.
Speaker 2:They're great Schaefer's Hardware, jack and his team, jack Rickey and his team have been great and of course, mckinleyville, ace, kevin. Kevin has been incredibly good to us. Picky, picky, picky, o&m Supply, and the list just goes on and on and on. And we couldn't do this program without them. But we also couldn't do it without small individuals too. It takes that village. I'll give you a quick story, just a segue, if you like.
Speaker 1:Sure go for it.
Speaker 2:So last year, of course, we had the experience with the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, retell that story because not everybody might remember or know that story.
Speaker 2:Well, it was around December the 8th or thereabouts it was a Friday night that this thief broke into the warehouse facility where we're at and stole a truck from White Church Construction and used a bolt cutter to gain access into the warehouse and used our forklift to load up a semi-load and off he went crashing through the gate. And incredible police department that we have and the sheriff's department got behind it, along with Humboldt County Drug Task Force, and found him. Well, we didn't know about it, we didn't report it till Sunday or till Saturday, and then, but by Monday night at 5 o'clock they had apprehended him. So I mean, they went after it. They had 16 officers involved to try to catch the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas. Well, anyway, to make a long story short, there wasn't a lot left to collect. Those guys have a wonderful distribution network, better than most retail stores. They can move stuff pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:Crazy, yeah, so, anyway. So there was a lot of publicity about the Grinch that tried to steal Christmas from these kids and our community, our community just came together. Shout out oh my gosh, how wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well anyway. So one of the folks who works so diligently with the John Moore Berg Foundation, who have been a contributor of our program in the past, came and asked me if I had some time, and of course I have time for all of our sponsors. That's what I do between October and December. Of course I got time. So she comes up the stairs and presents me with an incredible check. Really, oh my gosh, I mean I could hardly talk. Your jaw was dropping To fill all that stuff up. You're probably crying. There was a tear, there was a tear, there was a tear, absolutely. And so just oppose that to.
Speaker 2:About two days later, a guy comes and he's knocking on the door. You've been in my office, sure, you know. And he doesn't come up the stairs, you know. So it's hard to hear him. But bang, bang, bang, he's not letting go.
Speaker 2:So I happen to go down there and here's this gentleman who's obviously down on his luck. He's got holes in his jeans and they're not designer jeans and he says you know, I want to do something for Toys for Tots. And he reaches in his pocket and he pulls out a crinkled, wrinkled $20 bill and it gives that $20 to me and I says you know, the spirit of Christmas is alive within you and I'm so gracious and I so much appreciate this donation. And he says, thank you. And I said but you know what? I really want you to take this $20 bill and I want you to go down our offices on Myrtle Avenue, down to Murphy's Market, and get yourself some lunch and just know that you've done a wonderful thing this year and it's a great thing.
Speaker 2:And he looks at me with tears in his eyes and points to the heaven and he says what you don't know is when my mother was raising us, we had nothing and my mom got toys from Toys for Tots and you have to let me give you this $20 bill. Yes, you do so. That's the spirit and the joy of Christmas and it's part of why people want to give, because they want the next generation that's growing up to have the same kind of experiences and joy that we have. And that's just one of the examples. There are other great examples, too, of giving and sharing. I'll share another one, since I'm on that story.
Speaker 1:Hey, you got another story and I'll share another one, since.
Speaker 2:I'm on that story. Hey, you got another story, so we're at. You know we do these places where we have, you know, we hand out the toys to the parents. Part of our deal is that, you know, the parents have to come in and select the toys for their kids and our cadre of volunteers is huge, is huge, and we have over 150 volunteers that in different spots of our program, whether they're collecting toys at Target, whether they're picking up the boxes, whether they're working in the warehouse or whether they're at the distribution center where the parents come in and get the toys. The reason for that is we want the parents to have some skin in the game. We want them to be able to select the toy that they think is right for their kids, rather than us just give their kid a toy. They actually get to select those toys and those gifts for their kids.
Speaker 2:So put yourself in one of those distribution sites now, and you know we have, we'll run, you know, a couple thousand people through these distribution sites, particularly the McKinleyville site that covers McKinleyville and Arcata, and the Eureka site and we're getting towards the end of the third day. You know where we're distributing those toys and we're down to our last Tonka truck, the last one, the very last Tonka.
Speaker 2:And there are two moms that are going for the Tonka truck the very last Tonka. And there are two moms that are going for the Tonka truck, one relatively large black woman and one super thin Asian woman. And the black lady gets there before the Asian woman does and she puts her big arm around that toy and she's got it. And the Asian lady doesn't say a word, not a word. She just stands there and after about 15 seconds the tears just start to roll down her eyes. She was just had, you could tell. You know, sometimes you just get thrown curves in your life that you just can't figure out, right, amen, brother. And this for her, you could just tell, was like almost the last straw. Oh, my gosh, I can't even get my son, you know, the gift that you know that he would like.
Speaker 2:We all saw this, we all saw this. And that large, rather large, wonderful black lady saw it too. She took that truck and she handed it to that woman and she says you know, my son probably could use something else this Christmas. I think this belongs to your son. And there's stories like that, scott, all the time. There's just something about the goodwill in people that shows and shines and gosh. I've had the opportunity to see that and part of it is our community. I will say that I don't think there's a more giving community, more caring community, anywhere I've lived. It goes down from the top, from some of the most significantly important people in our community to some of the most impoverished, and it's about the joy of giving. I love it.
Speaker 1:That's well said. So walk us through the toy cycle. In terms of how you just didn't start this machine up two weeks ago, this goes all year long. So maybe on a calendar basis or a timeline, how, when the buckets are distributed, the barrels, the distribution and then kind of walk us through the circle of time.
Speaker 2:Well, good question. So we we're we've been doing it long enough now that we've made connections in many, many places that have helped us be able to identify great deals on discount show, and it's called the ASD Show, and I'll go there and I'll buy toys at 20, 25 cents on the dollar.
Speaker 1:Perfect? Is that Vegas or somewhere?
Speaker 2:It happens to be in Vegas. Yeah, it's called the ASD Show, and it's where the stuff that didn't sell last year goes. Okay, that's where it goes, and it's not just toys, they have other things as well. But of course I'm focused on toys. Well, I don't have any money at that point, that time of the year. I haven't raised any money.
Speaker 2:Right, you're broke, I'm broke, so I go in there, but we've been so blessed to have established these great relationship with some of these vendors and wholesalers that they'll actually hold out stuff for us to have me look at and give us first shot and then carry us until we've collected enough money to pay for it.
Speaker 2:So it's been a wonderful thing. And of course Blue Lake has helped with an incredible amount with what they've been able to do to help us as well be able to do that. So over the years, the toys we were able to get more toys and nicer toys than we were, you know, back 18 years ago when the program started. So that's great. And also you know our mainstay volunteers. You know we're all over 70. There's three of us that are Marines, two retired Marines and me, and then Bob Gooch's wife, nancy, has been part of the program and they work tirelessly in the warehouse all year long. So I mean when I say all year long, I mean they're talking thousands of hours that they donate of their time as well, and the program just wouldn't exist without their kind of love and dedication. Nice couple, they're great, they're wonderful.
Speaker 2:You're over 70?
Speaker 1:Huh, you're 70?. Yeah, 75. Unbelievable, I thought you were 60.
Speaker 2:We lost a couple of great people this year that helped us out a lot. A guy by the name of Alan Mann. Alan Mann, just a great guy, worked in our warehouse diligently and fortunately, and his wife, karen Mann, was our volunteer coordinator.
Speaker 1:Alan's a nice man. She's terrific.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So she took time off to help us and to help him and, of course, and then one of our Marines, Jose Gonzalez, his wife, Mary Jo, said she'd take over. Well, wouldn't you know it that, unfortunately, the one of the tragic things this last year was that Jose also came down with cancer and we lost those guys within a month of each other, and both really dedicated people to our program. And the lesson out of that is is that you know we're not here forever, we're just not. And I think my mom said it best. She says you know, when it's your time and you get up to the pearly gates and you're talking to St Peter, just make sure you made this world a little better place than you found it.
Speaker 2:And certainly those two guys made it a lot better place and they're very missed. And they've helped thousands and thousands of kids. So love them both and miss them both. But so we buy toys and the toys come in and they go to the warehouse that Green Diamond has given us. Our team goes in and breaks down those toys and separates it by age and gender, so we know what we have.
Speaker 1:And-. So there's a system that exists, pre-exists for years. As to know how to sort this stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, I think part of it is, you know, from a logistics point of view. Both Bob and Bill had a big part of that when they were in active duty service in our Marine.
Speaker 1:Corps, they did yeah.
Speaker 2:So they developed that system. I can't take any credit for that. That's all those guys, well, anyway. So the toys come in throughout the year and we're able to buy those, and then, starting in October, we start putting out the Toys for Tots boxes that you see everywhere. We have 100 locations where those boxes are across our vast territory, and signage and so forth, that kind of stuff. And then we also have sites where we'll have volunteers out interacting with the public. You'll see them at Target and you'll see them at Costco and you'll see them out with this sign that says help a child get a toy.
Speaker 1:Where they sell toys, they can bring and drop a toy.
Speaker 2:That's the concept, the idea they can drop a toy, or they can contribute in cash, or they can drop a check, or they can donate online. We have all ways you could do that. Let's talk to that.
Speaker 1:So if I whip out my Visa card right now and here's my Chase card, can you run a card and take money Right now? Right now, give me that card.
Speaker 2:This guy's fast. The program is phenomenal. It's run through Toys for Tots, the national program, but all the money that comes from Humboldt County stays in Humboldt County for Humboldt County kids Got you, so it's not going somewhere that you don't want it to go, and it's pretty special. It's a great program.
Speaker 1:So more forms of currency. Real quick Cash is okay.
Speaker 2:Cash is okay, checks are okay, donate online, or you can always donate a toy, and we want you to donate a toy. I want to tell you one other thing about that toy, though, because I had this situation a couple of times. That's developed. So I've had people say to me well, you know, it's part of their family tradition to go out and shop for a toy for a kid, and so they say well, you know, maybe you could buy it cheaper than I can. So I want to talk about let's just hypothetically talk about that Tonka truck. It could be anything, though, and so maybe I could buy it at 20, 25 cents on the dollar, but that family that went out and thought about that child, spent the time, bought that toy, talked about the meaning of Christmas and bring that toy and put it in our box.
Speaker 2:I got to believe that that one Tonka truck has love attached to it. Yeah, absolutely Just has love attached to it. So it depends on what's right for you. Yeah, again, it's that spirit of giving, and however we get it, whether it's an individual toy or whether it's a contribution, it's the intent behind it. It's the spirit behind it that makes it work.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're happy, of course, to take the donations and stretch those donations as far as we can and frankly, we couldn't do the program without it. Yeah, but it takes that combination. It takes that combination of that $20 bill that we got from that guy that was homeless, or an individual toy, or a large donation that we get from the Christina Jarlmohrberg Foundation or Blue Lake Casino and Rancheria. It takes that combination. Every quarter is important, every dollar is important. Everything counts and we make sure that everything gets used appropriately.
Speaker 1:That's great, that's great and it stays here. So let's come back to the arc of so you've been donating, you shopped in Vegas, they're warehoused. Now we're fundraising through the summer months, the barrels are distributed and then take us home. What's the rest? The?
Speaker 2:barrels are distributed and then take us home. What's the rest? Well, so then, you know, we start collecting the barrels, the barrels, the boxes. They're boxes now.
Speaker 1:That'll be next week or two closer to.
Speaker 2:Christmas, yeah, yeah, but we start distribution. Distribution has already started. So because our territory is so big, we have actually 14 different places where we distribute toys to. It's really difficult, for example, if you live in, for example, wichita, you know to come into Eureka to pick up your toys A long ways, yeah. So we put distribution centers that are close to towns and villages throughout our whole territory to make it reasonable on the parents and not cost the parents a bunch of money. And in all those different locations we have volunteers that are there to help the parents get those toys set up, so the toy's up. So there's a selection for the parents, but also to help the parents zone in on what's appropriate for their individual child.
Speaker 1:So they kind of concierge this thing a little bit.
Speaker 2:They do, and this weekend you're welcome to come by and take a look at what we're doing in the McKinleyville Shopping Center. It's pretty amazing really. They check in. We work also with the Humboldt County Office of Education and all of the schools, and the schools have the ability to go into a secure website and they can put the parent's last name and the age and gender of the child, so we know what to take to each place.
Speaker 2:There is no litmus test for what makes a child eligible.
Speaker 2:You know we say free or reduced lunch, but the schools know if a family is having a hard time, they can see that stuff. So they send out a message to the parents and they let the parents know okay, toys for Tots are coming up. Do you want to be involved? And they let the parents know okay, toys for Tots are coming up, do you want to be involved? And then, if the parents say yes, then the schools can enter them, or they can along with any other children that they may have at home that fit within our age category, which was 0 to 13. We also reach out to all the social service agencies, whatever they are, to make sure that if they need something, we're there for them. We have another program that reaches out to parents that happen to be involved in, maybe, rehabilitation, maybe it's drug or alcohol or something like that, and they're in a program. So we want to make sure that those parents have a gift when they get to see their kids on Christmas Day to keep that bond going.
Speaker 2:The recovery community yeah, we work with the foster parents to make sure that those kids get toys, Love it. I don't think there's any and I'm probably missing some of the one of the most fun days I had was just yesterday.
Speaker 1:What happened?
Speaker 2:So for years for over a decade we've been working with Glen Paul School and Glen Paul School is a school that takes care of severe and profound children with disabilities and they're a fabulous school and the school's secretary, a gal by the name of Jean Sheldon, has been working with us for years. We came up with the program a little bit well about a decade ago and that was that the school teachers for those particular kids would actually go online to a special vendor that we have called Discovery Toys vendor that we have called Discovery Toys, who makes rugged sort of stem toys but you can get it from a low level to a high level depending on where you are, and they work through that catalog and they buy the toys specifically for that child's ability.
Speaker 2:And, for example, a severe autistic kid, you may not want to get him a drum set. That's going to put him over the edge, sure. So they know the right gift to give them. Well, anyway, yesterday Santa Claus came to Glenn Paul School and Santa Claus handed out the kids toys. And you know, it's just a special moment. It's a special moment.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:The kids' eyes light up, I can imagine, and they have—so we—those are the kind of programs that we do to make sure that we have reached the community.
Speaker 1:I got a program for you when we're done here.
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:My son goes to HCAR. He did go to Glen Paul and they're a bunch of really special folks and so these guys appreciate it like nobody's business. Well, they do, yeah, because their hearts are super pure.
Speaker 2:We Appreciate it like nobody's business. Well, they do, yeah, because their hearts are super pure. We also now do the same thing with Early Beginnings. That's another program that they try to. If a child has some learning problems or some issues, they try to identify it early, and so on.
Speaker 1:I have a question. So you've identified all these audiences and the needs and those that can get you to the need. Can people walk on or is it invite only? Are there people that could, with a need that showed up and get a toy for their kid?
Speaker 2:Well. So when you have a program this big and you have distribution points, you know, throughout the region, you got to kind of know what they need so you can have the toys there. We've never said no, we've never said no. The one thing that we do try to keep is we do try to keep a handle on what we call double dipping, and so you know, people might sign up under two or three different programs. Our software, you know, catches most of those. Some get through, sure, sure, we're not the toy police.
Speaker 2:Right and if the worst thing in the world happens at Christmas time. If some kid gets a few extra toys Would be the end of the world. Life is not bad. Yeah, this is not bad. This is the kind of problem you want to have, it's a universe of abundance. It's a but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that, I like the way you think. So distribution, you get all the barrels. So, so distribution, you get all the barrels. So will these that are gathered toward the end of the year, will some of them, go into next year to the warehouse? Not much they're going to be busy elves for the next week or?
Speaker 2:so there's a slight bit of carryover, but not much, and we'll talk about the literacy program. Let's say, this weekend in McKinleyville They'll come in and we'll have their name and we'll know who their kids are. They come in, we register them, we have a little slip of paper that's filled out that says age and gender and it's 0 to 3 and 4 to 7, so forth, and as they check in we'll check off their kids and we'll actually have a volunteer that will shop with the parent that's great and take the parents to the section where the toys are for that particular kid. So a gift for a three to five-year-old is one thing, but a gift for a 13-year-old is something else to make sure that we're fulfilling the right gift for the right age and gender of that child. And so you'll see, you know lots of volunteers. You know, collectively we have over 150 volunteers throughout the program. 150 volunteers it's really incredible.
Speaker 1:I just think of logistics though. So you get it for the warehouse at Green Diamond and get it out to McKinleyville. That's schlepping a lot of toys.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, this year we're blessed to have people in the community that help us this year just to move toys. You know we're blessed to have Bettendorf Trucking. Oh yeah, who comes in with their semis and we load their semis up and they take out toys for us? Their semis and we load their semis up and they take out toys for us. We needed to get toys down to.
Speaker 2:Mendocino and a little bit into Lake County. Some Native American kids in Lake County and John Gehrig from Humboldt Moving and Storage jumped up and said yep, I got that Shout out to John. We needed to get some stuff over to Weaverville, to the Lions Club over there. Who does our distribution over there? And Furniture Design jumped up. Jay and his team jumped up to deliver those toys. Way to go, jay. And the list goes on. I mean trucks donated to us from Schaefer's. Who's helped us? Who gives us trucks to use? Elk Valley Nursery? Pete at Elk Valley Nursery has given us trucks.
Speaker 1:When you say Elk Valley, so you have some distribution across the city.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do Beautiful. Yes up to Del Norte County, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because there's plenty of need up there.
Speaker 2:There is. There's no shortage of need.
Speaker 1:We're not running out of the need.
Speaker 2:We're not running out of the need. We're not running out of need, yeah, and you know there's a lot of economic pressure on people, particularly in California. You know we have and this is not a political statement, but we have high taxes.
Speaker 1:Gas prices.
Speaker 2:We have high gas prices. Housing, we have high housing prices. We have high food prices. We have all that stuff Housing, we have high housing prices. We have high food prices.
Speaker 1:We have all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And so it's just fact it is. It is, if you're living on a limited income, you have to make some decisions about what it is you're going to buy or not going to buy. And many times that's really heart wrenching for many folks Sure, really heart-wrenching for many folks and imagine what it is if you're in that position and it's Christmas time and you know there's just no money to buy those toys. And I'm just grateful, I'm honored that we're able to help those families in our community.
Speaker 1:The community that we all love. Yeah, I love it. So the distribution happens. People get their toys and you do it all over again.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do. Yeah, it's really amazing, I think, if we switch to just one topic. One of the things that we do need to look towards in the future for this program is we need some help. Like many of the nonprofits and organizations, like us social civics organizations, the next generation that normally steps in is so busy working, raising their kids and family, and under the same economic struggles that we just talked about earlier, scott, that it's difficult for them to volunteer, and it worries us. It worries us because the program and we talked about our own mortality, the program needs to live beyond our mortality.
Speaker 2:It needs to go to the next generation, and so folks that are interested. There's so many opportunities to volunteer and become a part of our program, from the simple thing like collecting a toy in front of Costco to help picking up the boxes that are spread across our region full of toys help picking up the boxes that are spread across our region full of toys to working in the warehouse, to administrative help, to fundraising help, to public relations help. There just is so many opportunities out there for folks to work.
Speaker 1:So call you, you'll find somebody a job. Well, there's no shortage of opportunities.
Speaker 2:Sure. No shortage of opportunities.
Speaker 1:So tell us how to do that. What do you? Is the same website the same site? We can volunteer and give money, and why don't you do the shout-out on that stuff?
Speaker 2:You can do all of that on our website, it's toysfortotsorg, and you'll drill right down to us. So the first thing is, you want to find out. You know, where's my community? The first thing comes up state and California and then the next thing, all the counties come up. You click on Humboldt and everything is there, whether you want to request a toy, or whether you want to donate a toy, or you want to volunteer. Everything's there. But there's also, you know, you can just pick up the phone and call me 707-834-9595.
Speaker 1:834-9595. 834-9595. Yep, we'll find a place for you. 834-pa-bucket.
Speaker 1:That's what Steve Justice used to say. I love Steve Justice. 832-pa-bucket. I'm going. What is wait? How do you do that? So let's do hard, stop, break, break. Ready, greg, you get to do the quiz, for I know you don't take gifts usually, but you're going to take one of these because Kathy might really like it. It's a ginger snap, melt chocolate. Dick Taylor bar folks Right here, ready, question number one you get to go anywhere with Kathy for dinner. Where do you go in Humboldt County?
Speaker 2:Well, that's an impossible answer. Well we have Well let me Name three, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. We have so many great restaurants. We have so many great restaurants and I love them all. I wouldn't put one above another, because I wouldn't and I do go out to them and I really love them all. And so my, my answer would be we have so many restaurants in Humboldt County that it's really hard to choose because they're all so fantastic.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, call Number two. You decide you want to have a cocktail. Just randomly, like, where would you go for a cocktail? Well, there's so many great bars in Humboldt County. There's so many great bars. Why didn't I know this?
Speaker 2:There's so many great places to go, and I've seen you at a few of them, and we've been able to share a happy hour drink or two few of them and we've been able to share a happy hour drink or two, and I think you know the thing about going out to eat and the thing about going out and having an adult beverage with friends.
Speaker 2:I think there's a relationship that develops and that relationship comes to play when you need things. You know whether they need something as friends or anything. You want to be there for them and all the rest, and you find out about their families.
Speaker 1:It may be comfort.
Speaker 2:You got to do all of that stuff, and so I think that's the main joy we get out of that and we have a lot of wonderful establishments. And no, you're not going to get me to name one over the other.
Speaker 1:Well, let's go with something more innocuous. Well, let's go with something more innocuous. Where do you go for a day with Kathy outside outdoors, humboldt? Where would you go on that great map over?
Speaker 2:there. Well, what do you guys like to do?
Speaker 2:We're blessed because, for a couple different reasons, we live in an unbelievable area that has just blessed by the hand of God frankly it has, and, being involved in the publishing business for years, we've had the opportunity to find all the little nooks and crannies that are out there. You've seen it all, we've seen it all, we've enjoyed it all and we still do. I mean we'll, and again I. It's not that I'm trying to avoid the question, it's just that how do you, how do you, how do you put one unbelievable wonderful thing over another?
Speaker 1:You can't yeah, there's no way.
Speaker 2:I. You got the trees, you got the Pacific Ocean. You got incredible mountain range, you got raging rivers.
Speaker 1:Just for the record, either you're really flying through this test really well or you've not answered any questions, but I think he's doing great. So let's wrap and we'll do the shout outs in just a minute. What would you and this is counter to what you've asked, but what would you like us to say about you at your memorial? What's your legacy? What's your tombstone? Just maybe briefly.
Speaker 2:I think my mother said it best when we were growing up. She said when you get up to see St Peter, just leave the world a little better place than when you found it.
Speaker 1:Good word. I was going to counter that earlier, so you've brought it back up. Joni's father said no one gets out of here alive, so that was a little bit more pithy.
Speaker 2:Well he's right, mort, know mortality faces us all. It's pretty much 100%, yeah, and you know when we're gone, I mean our families remember us and you know and all the rest. But if you go out in the cemetery and you're taking a look, you know there's guys that have been there for quite a while. Yeah, and individually, individually, you know they get lost. You know, in history they just do, but the things that they did in their life can carry on and make a difference, and that's one of the things we think that Toys for Tots can do and other things can do that, by giving back to your community, yeah, you're, you're, you're promoting your legacy. Yeah, you know, you may no longer be attached to it, but the guy upstairs knows, yeah, he knows that you did your part. Yeah, that's what we're all here to do is do our part.
Speaker 1:I like that, and when you do that in a team environment, you can really make an impact, whether it's honor flight or toys for tots and uh. So parting shot. How do we get a hold of you guys again, and how do we get a hold of you and Toys for Tots? So just for repetition go Greg Toysfortotsorg.
Speaker 2:Easy to find us, easy to find Humboldt County Drill in. Tell us what you want to do and we'll be there for you. You can always call me at 707-834-9595. There's opportunities all year long for those folks that are interested. All you have to do is give us a shout out and we'll find a place for you. The organization needs you, the organization will appreciate you, and one thing that you'll get if you do volunteer for us is when you wake up on Christmas morning and your eyelids open up. You'll be able to have a smile on your face and you will know that you helped a deserving child. There's not much better feeling than that you helped a deserving child.
Speaker 1:There's not much better feeling than that Love it man Giver's gain. I'm going to close the show and then thank you. Thanks for watching, listening Scott Hammond, 100% humbled, on all the podcast platforms. Do you know? We're on AXS TV? I do now, you do now YouTube and thanks to Nick Flores, the producer, magnifique. Please repost, share, subscribe to us, tell your friends and oh, I forgot to award your chocolate, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, for my new best friend, and thank you for coming. And you passed the quiz with radiant colors. A Dick Taylor Ginger Stap Chocolate Bar for the holidays.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and I have one last thing to say. Oh, I do, you would, I would. So I want you to help Chubb get a toy. Okay, and on behalf of Toys for Tots and on behalf of Santa Claus, merry Christmas, merry Christmas, thanks, craig.
