Airmen help Airmen via Holiday Toy Drive

  • Published
  • By Jim Fisher
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Airmen helping Airmen. This is the prevailing sentiment among Team Kirtland volunteers conducting the Airman's Attic Holiday Toy Drive.

Toy drive volunteer Tech. Sgt. Sarah Hall said there are multiple organizations collecting toys this holiday season and they all represent worthy causes and will benefit  families throughout the community, but she especially appreciates how the Attic's toy drive is a chance for Air Forces members to help their own.

"There are a lot of different toy drives going on right now and they are all for a good cause," Hall said. "But a lot of people don't realize that our specific purpose is to be able to help out our Kirtland families."

Volunteers, including members of Kirtland's Rising Six, are collecting toys and cash donations at various points around Kirtland, including the Exchange, Commissary, 377th Medical Group and other units throughout the base. Donations will be sought through Dec. 12, when all items collected will be taken to the Gravity for the holiday toy giveaway from 8 a.m. to noon Dec. 13.

Hall, a member of the 58th Maintenance Squadron who is serving as the project manager for the drive, said committee members will also take cash donations and purchase additional toys for the event. Every Airmen who qualifies to use the Airmen's Attic (E-5 and below) is eligible for the giveaway. She said civilians of equivalent rank may also take part.

Tech. Sgt. Salvador Felix, Det. 1, 342nd Training Squadron, is coordinating the volunteer effort at collection points, and has been a perennial holiday project volunteer. He got involved with the Attic's toy drive because he knows the holidays can be tough on junior enlisted members' pocketbooks.

"You don't always plan for this holiday .You are so busy throughout the year dealing with various expenditures, and the next thing you know the holiday hits you by surprise and you are not prepared," Felix said.

Felix supervises four Airmen who would qualify for the giveaway, and he remembers what it was like to be in their shoes.

"How do you tell your kids, 'hey, I'm sorry, but it's going to have to be something small'," Felix asked.

As a single mother in her first enlistment, Hall had trouble managing on airman 1st class pay, and was grateful, along with her then five-year-old daughter, to be able to take advantage of this program at the time.

"When I was an A1C, I benefited from (this program). I was a single mom and I was picking and choosing the bills I could afford to pay. I didn't even have a car and I was riding a bike to work," Hall said. "So being able to go and pick out some items I wouldn't have been able to afford meant a lot."

Providing these gifts is not just lending a helping hand, according to Felix, but also a display of appreciation.

"These Airmen do so  much for the Air Force, and this is our opportunity to say, 'thank you. We're here for you. This is something we can give back in return for all you've done,' and it includes families, which are such an important part of the Air Force community," he said.

The toy drive committee can still post donation boxes at squadrons upon request. Squadron representatives can request a box by calling Felix at 853-2967 or via email at salvador.felix@us.af.mil.