HOOLEHUA, Hawaii -- Two CH-53D Sea Stallions from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 362, full of Marines and more than one ton of toys, made an early Christmas delivery during an island hopping trip to Molokai Thursday.
The special voyage was made in support of the Toys for Tots, a nationwide program which collects toys and distributes them to children of less fortunate families.
“Every toy that is collected in the state of Hawaii stays in Hawaii,” said Capt. Luke Gaffney, Toys for Tots representative. “It’s our goal here that no child in Hawaii goes without this Christmas if we can do something about it.”
Gaffney said looking at the need for this year, the organizers realized some of the outer islands are harder hit than Oahu.
“Molokai seemed … that if we didn’t bring [toys] to them, they wouldn’t be receiving [toys] this year,” Gaffney said. “Christmas isn’t necessarily about receiving. It’s nicer to be able to give to others and who doesn’t like to be able to give a toy to a kid?”
One of the Marines flying to the small island east of Oahu is Maj. Gary “Grinch” Thomason, operations officer, HMH-362.
Although a fitting call sign for Christmas, Thomason laughingly said he’s got a big heart.
“It’s a very heartwarming thing to do and we’re glad to do it,” Thomason said. “These are great missions. It’s a lot of fun to be able to support the local community and I think it’s one of the ways that we give back, not only with our service, but also with the program.”
Thomason said it’s not only important for all the little kids, but also for the Marine Corps. He also said it shows the Corps is doing things locally as well as for the entire nation.
“Our main mission is assault support and the biggest piece of assault support is lifting cargo from one place to another,” Thomason said. “Instead of going to Afghanistan, and lifting food and ammunition for Marines, we’re lifting toys and giving them to kids, and I think it’s great.”
Thomason said the squadron is called upon to do many different things like this and it’s important to give back to the community, fulfilling an ongoing promise to help where needed.
Molokai is only one small step in the spirit of giving for the holidays. More than 20,000 toys have been collected for the Toys for Tots program already.
The program is still trying to collect 20,000 more toys before the holiday season ends.
“There’s a greater need this year than there was last year,” Gaffney said. “We still have a ways to go and a little bit of time left to get there.”
Gaffney said the program has been really happy with the amount of community support received this year and every bit helps.
Toys for Tots is still taking donations. Anyone wanting to donate toys or make a cash donation can find drop-off locations at http://www.toysfortots.org.