Thank You So Much!
I have to tell you – one of the highlights of my year is participating in the Creations for Charity event! It is such an honor to be part of an event which brings smiles to so many children’s faces across the world! I am amazed at the kindness and generosity of so many LEGO fans – that we were able to raise $9300 and having sold over 122 creations and items is a tribute to everyone who helped make this possible!
Buying LEGO
After we start selling the donations from the BrickLink site, we are tasked with finding the best deals that we possibly can on LEGO products. All of the Area Coordinators, and Nannan especially, start searching and watching stores (and online stores) for great discounts on LEGO products, and when we find various sales we share those with each other. We also used the website ToysNBricks.com as a great resource for watching for sales.
From my experiences this year, I think the biggest challenge lies in the fact that sales this year on LEGO were very limited. I am certain that I speak for my fellow Area Coordinators, in saying that nothing is more exciting than getting more LEGO for your money’s worth. As my colleague in Michigan stated, we generally try to watch for 30% or more off of LEGO themes and 25% or more off of licensed themes.
As I started receiving the LEGO products I purchased for CfC, I kept them in storage under my Christmas tree – it was a great daily reminder of how much we are able to give to Toys for Tots!
I thought it might be nice to put a face with the name – and I can’t tell you how much fun it was to have my couch loaded up with LEGO products!
The Delivery:
Well, as you can see in the above picture, there were a LOT of LEGO sets to deliver to Toys for Tots – the LEGO themes included: Lord of the Rings, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Universe Super Heroes, Ninjago, City, Atlantis, Star Wars, Monster Fighters, and Friends, and included all different sized sets from Stocking Stuffer to Full-out-amazing-superawesome-gift-of-the-year-present with sets like Lord of the Rings Mines of Moria!
There were so many sets, that they almost didn’t fit into the trunk of my Mustang (which surprisingly has a large amount of storage space), but I managed to fit them all in my car!
I made my dropoff at one of my local Chicago area warehouses, and while there I met two former Marines who were busy making preparations for the toy distribution! They were really great guys to talk to, and I ended up staying around for about an hour just talking with both of them! The most exciting thing about my dropoff though – until I brought my carload of LEGO to this site, they had NO LEGO products to give to kids! It made me so happy to know that a lot of kids were going to be able to get LEGO sets for the holidays, that otherwise would not have! I think Frank (one of the two former Marines) said it best – his favorite part of working for Toys for Tots is on Christmas morning when he see’s his grandkids opening presents, and he knows that there are thousands of kids across our area who at that moment are experiencing the same joy and excitement because of what we do.
Those kids holiday celebrations were possible because of you, so Thank You! Whether you bought a creation, sold a creation, managed Creations for Charity behind the scenes, were another Area Coordinator, or just shared the Creations for Charity Event with your friends and family – thank you for making this a success!
I am already excited for what 2013 will bring for Creations for Charity!