M'ville Toy Store prepares to give out holiday gifts

The Marysville Toy Store program is again preparing to hand out free gifts this holiday season to families in need and registration is now open for the program.

Volunteers hand out gifts every December as part of the annual initiative.

“This year we’re again doing a drive-through event,” said Christie Veley, one of the organizers of the program. “It’s important for us to do the event in a way that we can keep our clients and volunteers safe."

Registration is open until Nov. 30. Families can register at tinyurl.com/toystore2021.

“It’s a little bit shorter this year so we can plan a little better,” said Veley.

Any family that lives in the 98270, 98271 or 98259 ZIP codes or that has a child who attends the Marysville or Lakewood school districts can register.

Families that register will need to schedule a time to pick up their toys, which will be given out on Dec. 15 and 16 at the Grove Church.

The Toy Store served a total of 1,700 clients last year.

“Last year we saw our highest number of clients served ever,” said Veley.

The year prior the program served a little more than 1,200 clients, however more need was seen in 2020, likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were in a unique situation last year because there were a lot of families in need and not a lot of resources being donated,” said Veley.

They were still able to get gifts out to all registered families though.

“We don’t really know what to expect this year, although we think it will be high. We’re just not sure how high,” said Veley.

There are several ways to donate this year.

Monetary donations can be made at marysvillefoodbank.org. “You can select for your donations to go directly to the Marysville Toy Store there,” said Veley.

Beginning on Nov. 4 the Marysville Red Barrels will again be out at local businesses and organizations.

Donations of toys or donations of nonperishable food for the Marysville Community Food Bank can be made in those barrels.

“They can also shop at our Marysville Toy Store Amazon registry,” said Veley.

That registry is available at tinyurl.com/toystoreamazon.

“That’s good because people can shop from their home and the toys will come directly to us,” she said.