Toys for the Children Needs Your Help
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www.toysforthechildren.org|
|www.scubatoys.com|
Imagine long lines of children, a soccer ball, a stuffed animal, the Christmas season. Think you're in a mall? Try a United Methodist Church annex in Utila, Honduras, where hundreds of boys and girls wait in line for divers to pass out school supplies, personal hygiene products and, of course, toys.
For Texas diver Jimmy Atkinson, founder of Toys for Children, the holidays are a chance to spread a little cheer by distributing donated gifts in popular dive destinations. "Our goal every year is the same: to take as much as we can and give it to as many kids as we can," he says.
"There was a little boy last year on Utila who brought his toy back. He asked if he could trade it for shoes. He got both."
Atkinson and crew played Santa Claus to more than 1,000 children between the ages of 2 and 14 in Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico last year. Over the past six years, they've distributed gifts to 7,400 children.
Dive clubs across the country pitch in with donated gift items, and the project is supported by an annual raffle of dive gear and resort packages donated by manufacturers and resorts. All donations and money raised goes into buying and shipping the gifts?the volunteers who hand them out pay their own way for the privilege of being one of Santa's Elves. "It only takes one exposure and then you're pretty much hooked, " Atkinson says.
If you'd like to get into the spirit of giving, Toys for the Children needs your help. Send non-battery operated toys, school supplies and personal hygiene products to Coral Rewards, Attn: Jimmy Atkinson, P.O. Box 542484, Dallas, TX 75354. The Toys for the Children web site is www.toysforthechildren.org. Or go to www.scubatoys.com to purchase your $5 raffle ticket and a chance at free dive equipment or dive vacations to the Maldives, Red Sea or Bay Islands. All "elf" efforts are greatly appreciated.
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| [www.toysforthechildren.org](http://www.toysforthechildren.org)| |[www.scubatoys.com](http://www.scubatoys.com)| |
Imagine long lines of children, a soccer ball, a stuffed animal, the Christmas season. Think you're in a mall? Try a United Methodist Church annex in Utila, Honduras, where hundreds of boys and girls wait in line for divers to pass out school supplies, personal hygiene products and, of course, toys.
For Texas diver Jimmy Atkinson, founder of Toys for Children, the holidays are a chance to spread a little cheer by distributing donated gifts in popular dive destinations. "Our goal every year is the same: to take as much as we can and give it to as many kids as we can," he says.
"There was a little boy last year on Utila who brought his toy back. He asked if he could trade it for shoes. He got both."
Atkinson and crew played Santa Claus to more than 1,000 children between the ages of 2 and 14 in Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico last year. Over the past six years, they've distributed gifts to 7,400 children.
Dive clubs across the country pitch in with donated gift items, and the project is supported by an annual raffle of dive gear and resort packages donated by manufacturers and resorts. All donations and money raised goes into buying and shipping the gifts?the volunteers who hand them out pay their own way for the privilege of being one of Santa's Elves. "It only takes one exposure and then you're pretty much hooked, " Atkinson says.
If you'd like to get into the spirit of giving, Toys for the Children needs your help. Send non-battery operated toys, school supplies and personal hygiene products to Coral Rewards, Attn: Jimmy Atkinson, P.O. Box 542484, Dallas, TX 75354. The Toys for the Children web site is www.toysforthechildren.org. Or go to www.scubatoys.com to purchase your $5 raffle ticket and a chance at free dive equipment or dive vacations to the Maldives, Red Sea or Bay Islands. All "elf" efforts are greatly appreciated.
