01/01/2026
As we pack up our Christmas decorations, take down the lights and hunker down until spring, the Kent County Toys for Tots program is filled with gratitude for the incredible support we have, once again, given by our community. This year, over 10,000 children had toys under the tree Christmas morning. And the parents of those children received desperately needed hope and dignity.
We are incredibly grateful to Amway US & Canada, who has hosted our program the past two years. And not only did they give us work space, they have us a base of wonderful volunteers. What an amazing gift to our community!
Thank you to every one of the over 300 businesses that collected toys for us. Every Library and Fire Department in Kent County, thank you for letting us fill your lobbies with toys. We had an fabulous team of volunteers picking up those toys too. A tip of the hat to Gordon Ensing, John Tinay, Bill Frederick, Mark Doornbos, Rishi Acharya, Jamie Hills, Tim Hagan, Scott Hagan, Jack & Crystal Kimble, Jeanette Jackson, Kim Pasikowski, Steve Beekman, Vicki Seidl, Mary Woronko, Emilie Quick, Jayson & Kelly VanderLaan, Collin Wallace. Thank you for schlepping trucks full of toys to our toy bay! We also extend our gratitude to the companies who provided trucks and drivers to help with our large pick ups (libraries and fire department). We extend our gratitude to College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving Grand Rapids, Powell Relocation Group, Penske Truck Rentals, Brady Plus (BBC), and TWO MEN AND A TRUCK. We also extend our appreciation to BridgePoint Wealth Management, Raymond James Financial, Bruce Evans, Youngblood Automotive Comic-Con, and Edward Jones Financial for hosting large donation events.
We are blessed to have the absolute best media sponsor! 13 On Your Side and Catherine Behrendt were fantastic getting the details to the public and hosted a wildly successful “School Spirit Challenge” that benefitted Toys for Tots programs in several counties.
Thank you to our national retail sponsor Ollie's, and Williams Forms and Engineering for their generous donations that helped us reach our goal.
Hundreds of volunteers gave up their Saturday before Christmas to help distribute toys from our four distribution sites. We could not have done it without you. Thank you to Jackie Palasak who coordinated distribution at Discovery School, Travis Kempton and Wood Haven Reformed Church, Dawn DeJonge and North Rockford Middle School and Mindy Smith at Sts. Peter and Paul School. Distribution is a huge undertaking, from finding people to unload semis full of toys to getting food donated to feed our large base of volunteers. Awesome job everyone!
Last, and certainly not least, the members of the Kent County Toys for Tots board deserve a ton of credit. They work almost year around to make the program better every year. Many spend eight hours (often more) in Toy Bay the weeks before and of distribution. Every board member is a volunteer with families and lives and manage to fit all this time into their schedule. So with incredible gratitude we thank Deb Vanderlaan, Nadine Schut, David Schut, Lynn Kyser, Paul Eckhart, Heather Decker, Catherine Behrendt, Mindy Smith, Jackie Palasek, Travis Kempton, Dawn DeJonge, Jeff Dejonge.
To our coordinator, Liz Gromko, we are more than grateful. This is a very demanding job, with hours and hours of emails to answer, a national foundation to answer to, financials to manage and so much more. The amount of work required for this position speaks volumes to the love and belief in the mission of this program. Thank you, Liz!
As we close out the year, we are once again in a position of needing to find a home for our program in 2026. If anyone knows of warehouse space available, please reach out to us!
Thank you everyone who made the program happen. Every single donation brought hope and joy to a child on Christmas, and that’s what Christmas is all about.
