The Salvation Army is looking for toys, toys and more toys.
“Usually what we find is the older age groups (are harder to fill),” said Moose Jaw Salvation Army Capt. Laurie Reilly. “Everybody loves to buy little kiddie stuff because, let’s face it, they’re fun toys. I have a four month old granddaughter and she’s got the best little toys ever. But it’s the older people, 10, 12 and up is what we have problems filling.”
She said toys need to be new and unwrapped so they can assess the age appropriateness of the toy. She said things such as cognitive growth theories are used to assess what a child should be doing at a certain age, such as at age 10, and the reality of what a 10-year-old is doing or what they would like as an example.
“(We) go with what the 10-year-old would probably be doing and just assess what are 10-year-olds doing nowadays,” said Reilly. “I usually have helpers who have kids, so they would let me know what it is ... like mine are all grown, so I have a variety of helpers that have that age group of kids.”
Toy drop off locations and participants are the same as last year. Those include the Sears Angel Tree, McDonalds, Shaw Cable, Fabutan, Peavey Mart, the Salvation Army Thrift Store and the Salvation Army Warehouse.
“The warehouse is where we’re going to do our packing,” said Reilly. “So if the toys were brought there, that would be a wonderful time saver for us transporting them around.”
For more information, see an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
