McAlester Prepares To Hold Massive Toy Drive

A McAlester teenager wants to see every child receive a present on Christmas this year.

He's been organizing a toy drive for years and believes the one this Saturday will be bigger than ever. 

Dolls and stuffed animals and scooters of all sizes will soon find a home with children all over Oklahoma and several other states.

Volunteers are hard at work getting the massive number of toys all sorted inside the Southeast Expo in McAlester.

“There is purpose to the madness," said Nikki Kalin.

Nikki Kalin owns Fifth Quarter Printing in town and has been helping with the toy drive for a few years.

"Doing it the day, seeing all the kids is the best part of Christmas because they all smile knowing some of these this is the only toy they’re gonna get," she said.

This toy drive started several years ago when organizer Reed Marcum was only 11.

Now a freshman at OSU, he's organized these drives through Pittsburg County’s 4-H chapter.

“We gave out a thousand toys that first year," Reed said. "It’s evolved this hundreds of volunteers, people living up for blocks to get in line, and giving out more than 54,000 toys these past few years since we’ve started.”

"The reaction from the public, especially the children, I'll call it life-changing," said Greg Owen with Pittsburg County 4-H.

Companies and people donate money and toys to pull this off with the help of partners in the community and nationwide.

“We’re working on speakers and stuff like that.”

Calleigh Tarron and Solar Starr are also in 4-H and are helping Reed.

“At the toy drive, I’ll be passing out the gowns and the kid's pajamas for my service project," said Solar Starr, a 10th-grade volunteer. 

7th grader Calleigh is Reed’s niece, and on top of her own project to help veterans, she may want to take over the toy drive one day.

“Most of the time, they are extremely excited," said Tarron. 

Throughout the drive-through event, special gifts like bikes will come out every 20 minutes, and kids can choose exactly what they like.

“It's beyond describing how they look or how their little minds think," Kalin said. 

Saturday’s drive-through event starts at 10 a.m. and goes until dark or until all the toys are gone. More than 10,000 toys and clothing items are set to go to kids, and everyone is welcome. For more information, click here.