On December 5th, 2019, Marco Gruelle of DTGruelle and his team donated a 53-foot truck and coordinated the transport and delivery of 400 bicycles to assist The Beaver & Northwestern Allegheny Counties Toys for Tots chapter for an annual bicycle drive. Local television station, KDKA, covered the story about the drive.

Toys for Tots began in 1947 when Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children.

The idea came from Bill’s wife, Diane. In the fall of 1947, Diane handcrafted a Raggedy Ann doll and asked Bill to deliver the doll to an organization, which would give it to a needy child at Christmas. When Bill determined that no agency existed, Diane told Bill that he should start one. And he did.

The 1947 campaign was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign.