| | |  News from Around Banderas Bay | December 2009 
Toys for Tots Eleventh Annual Gala Dinner
 Rose Hunter - PVNN
December 14, 2009
| | On December 13th, two hundred people gathered at the CasaMagna Marriott, Gran Salón Vallarta, for the Eleventh Annual Toys for Tots gala dinner. | |
On Sunday December 13, 2009 two hundred people gathered at the CasaMagna Marriott, Gran Salón Vallarta, for the Eleventh Annual Toys for Tots gala dinner. The popular charity, run by the Puerto Vallarta Navy League, purchases and distributes toys to needy children in the Puerto Vallarta and Banderas Bay area.
The banquet room was colourfully decorated in a carnival theme, with balloons, streamers, clowns, and wonderful giant masks. Soft toys sat on all the tables. I was surprised when someone held one to my head; I thought so I could pretend it was attacking me (did anyone else do that as a kid?) - but as it turned out she was just demonstrating how if you pressed a button on its belly, it squeaked. Sorry for the faces...
Also displayed were various items for silent auction, ranging from paintings by local artists including Judith Ewing Morlan, Meg Munro, and Paco, to stays in Marriott hotels in Mexico City, Caracas, and Rio de Janeiro; to caps autographed by Mexican golf star Lorena Ochoa. Most eagerly bidded on were earrings by Cassandra Shaw, and a lovely June Rosen Lopez pendant.
After dinner there was a live band and dancing, with a very good time seemingly had by all.
 The Toys for Tots charity as a whole was founded in 1947, by Major Bill Hendricks. As the story goes, it was Bill's wife who originally had the idea - she'd made a doll and asked Bill to take it to an organization that would give it to a needy child for Christmas. Since no such organization existed, she told Bill he should start one. Like any good husband, Bill followed her instructions. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots and expanded it into a nationwide campaign the next year.
The Puerto Vallarta program was founded in 1999, when 400 toys were purchased and delivered. Since then the charity has been steadily growing, with 13,000 toys distributed to underprivileged children in the Banderas Bay area last year, and an increase in that number expected for this year.
All proceeds from the dinner, the silent auction, and the golf tournament - which was held the day before at the Vista Vallarta Tom Weiskopf golf course - will be used to purchase and deliver toys, and to install two new playgrounds.
Delivery of the toys will take place on January 11.
On Three Kings Day, January 6, volunteers will gather at 12:00 noon at the CasaMagna Marriott, Gran Salón Vallarta, to blow up 3500 soccer balls. Volunteers needed! (Jokes about hot air optional.) To help out, simply show up, or contact Puerto Vallarta Navy League Vice President Bill Semeyn at pvnlac(at)comcast.net.
Rose Hunter is a writer and massage therapist who was born in Australia, lived in Canada (Toronto), for many years, and now makes her home in Puerto Vallarta. She has had short stories and poetry published in various magazines and literary journals. In a past life, she also wrote articles for boxing magazines. More links to her writing can be found at her blog, Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home. She is also the editor of the online poetry journal, YB, which is published twice a year, in June and December.
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