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SRS celebrates another successful Toys for Tots drive

Posted: 4:42 AM Dec 7, 2012
Reporter: Chad Mills

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News 12 First at Five / Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012

SAVANNAH RIVER SITE, S.C. -- There are almost a half dozen empty trucks, a visit from Santa and thousands upon thousands of toys.

"Photos just don't do it justice,” said Dwayne Wilson.

They’re all signs of yet another Toys for Tots drive at Savannah River Site.

"The employees at Savannah River Site are awesome. Every year they come together, and this is one campaign and charity that everyone loves to do,” said Julie Kirby, chair of the drive.

Kirby is also a worker at SRS. It’s the workers who make all of this possible.

This year, they collected 14,000 toys. In the 21 years they've collected toys, that makes a grand total of approximately 242,000.

"We're going to take those toys, count them, sort them and get them distributed out to the agencies that can help those families that need those toys,” said Dwayne Wilson, president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

Wilson was right there with the rest of the workers, loading the trucks with games, dolls and hundreds of bikes.

"We also have adopted 170, I believe, angels from the Salvation Army, so those are specific requests that kids or parents have made,” he said.

After it's all said and done, the U.S. Marines pilot the trucks, and all the toys will eventually make their way under trees across our area.

"We're going to take those toys, count them, sort them and get them distributed out to the agencies that can help those families that need those toys,” said Staff Sgt. Steven Reed with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Half the trucks will head toward Aiken and the other half toward Augusta.