Submitted by LeMay – America’s Car Museum.
This holiday season, LeMay – America’s Car Museum is partnering with fellow non-profit, Santa’s Castle, for their annual holiday toy drive to help bring new toys to military families at Joint Base Lewis-McCord who are experiencing financial hardships.
Every year, hundreds of military families in our local community throughout the South Sound endure holiday stress due to financial struggles. ACM’s Toys for the Troops campaign helps bring new toys, board games, books, and holiday cheer to those families in need. Due to this year’s economic challenges, Toys for the Troops will support any military family E5 and below or any rank with four or more children.
Starting Friday, November 25, ACM will have a dedicated vehicle from their collection positioned in the main lobby that they will be using to store toy donations as they are brought in. ACM will be accepting donations for Toys for the Troops until Thursday, December 15 when Santa’s Castle will arrive to pick up all donations and begin to distribute to military families in need.
In addition to their Toys for the Troops campaign, ACM is also donating 100 family-level memberships to Santa’s Castle that are to be distributed to service members as well. This $12,000 contribution by ACM will provide free, unlimited access for 100 military families to visit the Museum as many times as they like over the course of the next year.
“At ACM, we value the opportunity to support our local military community. Toys for the Troops and the additional donation of these family memberships is our way of giving back to all the many military families who have made sacrifices to keep our country safe. We want members of the military in our community to feel welcome at our museum and to feel like they are a part of our family. These memberships will allow them to experience what our museum has to offer and allows them to be a part of our many family-oriented events and activities we host here every year at no extra charge to them.” – Says Paul E. Miller, Senior VP of Finance at LeMay – America’s Car Museum.
“Santa’s Castle is entirely donor funded and we are extremely grateful for the support from our local community. Our Service Members work hard and sacrifice much to support us, and our organization is just one way we can return that support and show our gratitude. Toys for the Troops and the donation of family memberships from America’s Car Museum is extremely generous and will help us meet our mission of relieving stress for our Service Members. We just cannot thank ACM enough for coming to our aid this season and helping us fill our shelves.” -Says Donna Handoe, President of Santa’s Castle.
If you are interested in supporting local JBLM families this holiday season, you can bring a toy, book, board game, or stocking stuffer to America’s Car Museum to donate during your next visit. As a thank you for supporting Toys for the Troops, you will receive $2 off your admission price for the day or 10% off any level of membership when you sign up.
For more information about Toys for the Troops and LeMay – America’s Car Museum, visit www.americascarmuseum.org.