By LOIS KINDLE
The Sun City Center Emergency Squad is currently collecting new and unwrapped toys for the children of military families—and your help is needed now more than ever.
This marks the squad’s 10th year of supporting Veterans Funeral Care’s local Operation Toy Soldier collection drive—part of a national effort to bring holiday cheer to the children of active-duty service members and Veterans.
“It’s a wonderful cause,” said SCC Emergency Squad volunteer dispatcher Sheila Houlihan, its annual OTS collection coordinator. “The children and their parents urgently need us, especially in this day and time. Christmas and Back to School are always the hardest for them.”
She’s right.
With many military families currently facing ongoing financial hardship or still recovering from last year’s hurricanes and flooding, your donation can brighten a child’s holiday and remind a local military family they’re not alone.
Every toy collected will go to the child of a local family of an enlisted man and/or women who are often young and having difficulty making ends meet.
These families are often headed by young parents struggling to make ends meet. The age range for donations is infancy through 17; a particular need is always great for boys and teens.
SHEILA HOULIHAN PHOTO
Games, dolls and interactive toys make great gifts for a child with parents in the military. There’s a special need for donations of dolls of color and gift cards for older children.
SHEILA HOULIHAN PHOTO
New, unwrapped toys, gift cards or checks made payable to Operation Toy Soldier can be dropped off in the lobby of the SCC Emergency Squad through Dec. 4. The much-needed gifts will bring holiday joy to the infants and children (through age 17) of active duty military.
COURTESY PHOTO
For the past 10 years, SCC resident Sheila Houlihan has coordinated the Sun City Center Emergency Squad’s annual community collection drive on behalf of Veterans Funeral Home’s Operation Toy Soldier. For her, it’s all about the children of active duty military families.
Thanks to the generosity of greater Sun City Center residents and Emergency Squad members, this collection is consistently Veterans Funeral Care’s largest contributor.
“We only promote Operation Toy Soldier throughout the military community,” said Veteran Jim Rudolph, owner of VFC.
“It’s amazing how one place—Sun City Center—provides so much. Its residents and the squad have such a heart for what we do, and we’re so appreciative of everything they do for us and the families we support.”
Houlihan said last year the squad collected 1,500 toys—47 boxes, plus bags of sports balls. This year’s special requests include baby dolls of color and gift cards (with the amount written on them) for Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.
New, unwrapped toys, gift cards — or checks made payable to Operation Toy Soldier can be dropped off in the lobby of the SCC Emergency Squad through Dec. 4 or mail to 720 Ray Watson Drive, Sun City Center, FL 33573. Veterans Funeral Care is responsible for picking up and distributing everything in time for Christmas.
For more information, call 813-633-1411 and leave a message for Houlihan.
Operation Toy Soldier began in 2001 and was adopted nationally by Veterans Funeral Care in 2013. To learn more about the effort, visit www.operationtoysoldier.com/.