TIF and BGCA Celebrate the Year of the Coast Guard Family

On Tuesday, June 28, 2011, the Toy Industry Foundation (TIF) and Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) visited the Massachusetts Military Reservation in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts for a special Toy Bank distribution in celebration of the year of the Coast Guard Family. More than 200 children of Coast Guard families and other military personnel attended the event held at Tactical Training Base (TTB) Kelley, which was designed to rapidly train units in a setting like they would experience during combat missions in Iraq or Afghanistan. The base was named in honor of Sgt. Michael Kelley who was killed in Afghanistan.

Thanks to generous Toy Bank donors, infants to teenagers were able to take home their own toy which will provide endless hours of play and comfort to them when their mother or father is deployed. The afternoon’s festivities included face painting, a balloon magician, and ice cream and beverages to cool everyone off on the warm summer day.

Special thanks to TIA staff and toy industry representatives who volunteered at the event. Toys distributed at the event were generously donated by Bananagrams, Cepia, DuneCraft, Hasbro, Thames and Kosmos, and exhibitors at February’s American International Toy Fair®.