Moving full steam ahead.
A local nonprofit and emergency responders from Montgomery County, Maryland, are teaming up this Saturday to collect toys for children in North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene.
“Fill the Boat” is an annual event meant to collect and distribute toys to children through various charities in the D.C. area. This year, because of the ongoing plight of those affected by Hurricane Helene, the focus shifted to aiding the community of Ashe County, North Carolina.
“This year, the list that we received from the folks down in Ashe County, they have over 550 kids that are in need,” said Costa Sardelis, logistics coordinator for Tidewater Disaster Response, the nonprofit that runs the event.
In partnership with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue and Montgomery County Police, the “Fill the Boat” toy drive will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Rio Lakefront at 9811 Washingtonian Blvd. in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Aside from the toy drive itself, Sardelis said the event should be a fun day for children of all ages, including the opportunity to interact with a fire truck, as well as a search and rescue boat.
“Montgomery County Fire and Montgomery County Police are going to be bringing out some of their cool apparatus for kids to check out. We’ll have our search and rescue boat. We’ll have our response trailer there,” Sardelis said. “So it’s going to be a family-friendly event.”
Sardelis said in previous years, the record for toys collected in a single drive was 412. He’s hoping they can break that record this year: “My goal for this year is to get exactly 550, or more.”
After the event on Saturday, volunteers will drive the toys down to Ashe County, where they will be distributed by partner charities there.
“We’re going to help them bundle up the toys into Santa bags for the kids, and then we’ll head back to Maryland on Sunday night,” Sardelis said.
If you are interested in donating to this event, Sardelis said they are looking for “new and unwrapped toys for children ages five to 16, for both boys and girls. So everything from LEGOS and Hot Wheels cars, to Barbie dolls, coloring books.”
“And again, the key is new and unwrapped, so that we can sort them easily and get them into the Santa bags when we’re down to North Carolina,” he said.
WTOP’s Ana Golden contributed to this report.
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