The spirit of giving was put into overdrive this past weekend as the Spindles Auto Club hosted a Toys for Tots donation drive and car show on Sunday, Nov. 19 at the Hanover Mall.
When all was said and done with toy donations and monetary donations that lead to the purchasing of toys, an estimated $10,000 was raised from the event for the charity.
“We’ve been looking to branch out into different venues as the mall will go under renovations in the next few years,” said Hanover Mall General Manager Ed Callahan. “Meanwhile, we continue to operate the mall and we are looking at any type of venue that can draw a crowd. When Mike Dignan heard Spindles, the big auto show group, was interested in doing a show in the vacant JCPenney lot as a fundraiser for Toys for Tots, we thought it was an awesome idea that came together pretty quickly.”
Before contacting Toys for Tots, Spindles worked with several other charities, including several food pantries and animal shelters on the South Shore. The original plan was simply to make a monetary donation to Toys for Tots, but when that idea was nixed, Dignan contacted the Hanover Wal-Mart and eventually the Hanover Mall.
“They gave us the space at the Hanover Mall in front of JCPenney and they provided the electrical and we had all the power we needed,” said Dignan. “Anything we could possibly put our minds to, they gave us the opportunity to do it. The location was absolutely awesome, as we usually bring a few hundred cars to a location and we sure had a good amount of cars show up.”
Not only did cars show up, but wallets did too, as more than $950 was collected in cash donations alone. They reached out to The Toy Box, which is across the street from the mall, who gave them a large discount that allowed them to buy more toys than if they purchased them at a regular store, according to Dignan.
Places such as Starland Sportsplex and Fun Park donated $100 in gift certificates, along with another $200 gift certificate from Squid’s Ink tattoo parlor located inside the mall for a raffle that was held.
One of the few hiccups on the day wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the 15-passenger van that was rented to transport the toys away was not nearly big enough. A 20-foot-long U-Haul truck was promptly rented and was packed front-to-back with toys.
Toys for Tots donation boxes can be found in the lobbies of area fire departments and monetary donations and more information can be found at www.toysfortots.org.
Article courtesy of Wicked Local : http://marshfield.wickedlocal.com/news/20171121/spindles-auto-club-nets-10000-worth-of-donations-for-toys-for-tots
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