Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton Police Lt. Nick Roberts in the U-Haul truck used to distribute hundreds of boxes of toys to local schools Monday on behalf of the Toys for Tots program

HOUGHTON – Thanks to Toys for Tots and local law enforcement agencies, local school children will experience a bit of Christmas during the upcoming Easter Season. Officers from the City of Houghton Police Department Wednesday needed a U-Haul truck to deliver the hundreds of boxes of toys to schools.

“We had left over Christmas toys from Toys for Tots they need to get rid of,” said Houghton Police Lt. Nick Roberts, “so the police departments are taking the responsibility to get them out and into the community by way of the schools.”

The boxes of toys were being delivered to schools in a U-haul truck, consisting mainly of Disney toys and Dungeons and Dragons dragons.

“There’s hundreds of dragons and thousands of Disney toys,” said Roberts. “They’re very good toys.”

Roberts said it was a question of how to distribute the toys to kids, and the most logical solution was to deliver them to schools.

“We’re trying to get to as many schools as we can today,” he said.

The Houghton Police Department took the lead on the project, Roberts said, but the school resource officers at all the schools in the area are involved, Roberts said.

The basic mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new unwrapped toys and distribute them to economically disadvantaged children at Christmas.

The primary goal of Marine Toys for Tots is, through the gift of a new toy, help bring the joy of Christmas and send a message of hope to America’s economically disadvantaged children, states the program’s website.”Toys for Tots had them and needed a way to get them distributed,” Roberts said, “so, we told them we’d help them out.”

Roberts thanked U-Haul Moving and Storage, of Atlantic Mine, who generously donated the use of a truck for delivering the toys. He said he does not know how Toys for Tots ended up with so many Disney and Dungeon toys. The answer may have something to do with Disney.

According its website, Disney’s relationship with Toys for Tots began more than 75 years ago, in 1947, when Walt Disney and his animators personally designed the original Toys for Tots train logo that is still used today. This legacy continues today as Disney helps bring toys – and joy – to millions of children in need during the holidays.

This year’s Disney Ultimate Toy Drive was the biggest yet, breaking Disney records with collections of more than half a million toys for children in need thanks to contributions from Disney, as well as fans, families, and cast members, the website says. Over 500,000 toys were collected for donation around the world, with more than 400,000 toys going to the Marine Toys for Tots Program in the U.S. Thousands of employees and cast members spent more than 3,000 hours supporting the Disney Ultimate Toy Drive through Disney VoluntEARS, Disney’s employee volunteerism program, the website states.