Big donations help set Las Vegas Toy Drive records

Chet Buchanan spent much of this year’s 12-day Toy Drive cautiously optimistic that donations would top last year’s numbers. He’d end up having to wait until the very end of the campaign to get the good news.

Just before 10 a.m. Monday, Toy Drive sponsor Terrible Herbst came to the NV Energy parking lot with a check for $100,000 and 1,041 bikes that, together with some other last-minute donations, broke last year’s collection records.

“I think I’m still just in shock,” said Buchanan, who’s now on vacation from the Morning Zoo, but still doing station appearances.

This year’s records:

• Thirty 50-foot trucks were filled with toys for needy families
• 6,700 bikes collected
• $442,669.00 in money and gift cards

Terrible Herbst had been asking customers at their convenience stores across the valley to donate to Toy Drive for six weeks leading up to the 18th annual event. “Based on what they had done last year and their demeanor in the days leading up, I knew what I believed they hoped to do,” said Buchanan. “But you can never count on that.”

Other notable donations came from Walgreens ($104,294.00), actor and comedian Adam Sandler ($10,000.00) and magician Criss Angel ($15,000).

HELP of Southern Nevada partnered with 61 other nonprofit organizations in the valley, with several still on a waiting list, to distribute toys and bikes, according to Executive Director Fuilala Riley. Nonprofits such as the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada and Legal Aid of Southern Nevada will then give the donated goods to their client families.

The money collected will be used to purchase more gift cards and toys, along with helping cover the costs of putting on Toy Drive. HELP of Southern Nevada’s distribution center at 1640 E. Flamingo Road is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m by appointment only. Volunteers help parents pick Christmas gifts for their children.

“Sometimes it’s hard,” Riley said. “You’re trying to keep it together because they’re so thankful.”

For Buchanan, who spends the 12 days of Toy Drive on a 20-foot-tall platform in the NV Energy parking lot, it was another year of helping make Christmas merry and bright for families in need.

“I am so proud of this community and so proud of these people,” he said. “We put out a call, and they answered it. It’s an amazing thing.”

Contact Brooke Wanser at bwanser@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Bwanser_LVRJ on Twitter.