Macy's donates $3,000 shopping spree to Toys for Tots program

From Baby Sharks, home spa beauty sets, and Nerf guns.

Gunnery Sgt. Rubin Tan is the coordinator for Toys for Tots in Guam and the CNMI.

"Super grateful for Macy’s. Earlier this year, they were able to give us a large donation of toys...they make a huge impact to our campaign," he said. "It definitely adds to the amount of toys that we are able to collect this season."

Marines from Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz are getting ready for the season.

"This year, Macy’s actually was able to give us a grant of $3,000 so we are here with the Marines conducting a shopping spree to purchase toys for children for this upcoming 2023 Toys for Tots season," Tan said. 

Three grand for a grand experience to truly make the holidays special for those most in need.

"Whenever we start collecting toys and receiving donations, you would see there are certain deficiencies in certain age groups," Tan said. "We see this a lot for the children are that are zero to two years old, and also those that are 14 and up. This allows us to focus on those age groups just to ensure that we have those toys available for children when it comes to Christmas time."

We asked if he was feeling nostalgic looking at some of the things on the shelves? 

"It does," Tan said. "I remember when I was a kid there was this Pokemon pinball game I received when I was like 10 years old. It was the best Christmas present ever. And I know it could be hard for some parents to purchase toys for their kids. So just being able to bring that joy to another child and knowing that they’re able to have that experience means a lot to me and I know that it means a lot to the parents out there. ...Being an adult now and seeing all the new toys they have coming out is like oh this is awesome toys. Let’s grab 10, 15 or 20 and see how many kids that we can get these out to."

The program he says going strong for 14 years. And the partnership with businesses like Macy’s has been a plus. Ryan Torres is the store manager at Macy’s.

"So important giving back to our local community, the children who are in need. We have done this for several years," he said. "The teams behind it, the companies behind it, we just love helping out our local community."

An exciting time as well for his team as they help to build up the donations each time this year.

Tan says while they are aware the recent years for the islands haven’t been easy for everyone, it’s the little things that help this program to flourish as it should.

"We know that this year everyone experienced Typhoon Mawar, so a lot of difficult times and before that it was COVID," he said. "But the community has always shown their support for Toys for Tots and we are grateful for that and that the children and parents are grateful for that."

To find out more on how you can get involved – check out Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz on social media.