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 Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Emergency Communications, a Youth-Focused hamfest and More |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
 ARRL/The Salvation Army 2005 Holiday Toy Drive chairperson and country music star Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, helps move some new bicycles to the loading dock at the Memphis warehouse. |
 (L-R) ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP; The Salvation Army's Bill Feist, WB8BZH; Joe Lowenthal, WA4OVO, Country music star Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ; ARRL Delta Division Vice Director Henry Leggette, WD4Q, and ARRL Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK. |
 Lowenthal hefts a box containing a Radio Flyer red wagon destined for some lucky recipient on the US Gulf Coast. [W4OQG Photo] |
 Richard Barnes, KA4HXB, unpacks a shipment of toys. [W4OQG Photo] |
 W1AW/4 on the air from the Memphis ARRL/Salvation Army 2005 Holiday Toy Drive warehouse. [Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 16, 2005--A convoy carrying contributions to the ARRL/Salvation Army Holiday Toy Drive set off December 15 from the Memphis warehouse where the toys have been collecting for several weeks. On hand to see them off were representatives of the ARRL, The Salvation Army, country music singer Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, Amateur Radio volunteers, the news media, dignitaries and, of course, Santa Claus, whom Loveless summoned via 2 meters. Loveless, who served as national chairperson for the campaign, expressed her thanks to Amateur Radio clubs and individual hams who gave to the drive.
"I think it's just amazing! For those who couldn't be here, I'm sure they're here in spirit and giving from their hearts, and I just want to thank them--from all around--for collecting," Loveless told ARRL. "Love is a word that truly everybody knows."
It took three trucks to contain the 4500 toys bound for youngsters along the US Gulf Coast displaced or left homeless as a result of this year's devastating hurricanes.
ARRL Delta Division Vice Director Henry Leggette, WD4Q, ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, The Salvation Army's Bill Feist, WB8BZH, and Loveless headlined a send-off ceremony as volunteers, coordinated by Joe Lowenthal, WA4OVO, packed up the trucks. Lowenthal says the Holiday Toy Drive received donations from upward of three dozen states plus the US Virgin Islands.
At the warehouse, Delta Amateur Radio Club members began a W1AW/4 special event operation December 15. That was expected to continue for another day, possibly longer. A W1AW mobile station also is on the air from a vehicle shadowing the truck convoy, first headed to The Salvation Army's Gulf Area headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi, which will serve as the distribution center--and then to Biloxi. The convoy may be trackable via APRS.
The ARRL partnered with The Salvation Army for this year's
campaign. Feist, The Salvation Army's disaster services director for the
Alabama-Louisiana-Mississippi division, said it was an exciting occasion and
everything went smoothly.
 Patty Loveless greets Santa Claus. [Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, Photo] |
"They had some media here, and I was happy to see Amateur Radio get some public credit for what they have done," Feist said. "As The Salvation Army's representative, we are certainly very appreciative of what all the Amateur Radio operators around the country and the ARRL have done for the people of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi."
Pitts reports that League members gave more than $4000 in cash donations to purchase even more toys--especially for older youngsters--and transport them to the Gulf Coast. Impressed by an electronics experimenter's kit that one radio amateur had contributed, Pitts used a portion of the cash donations to purchase 150 more kits.
"The kits not only are appropriate for older children, but they may well spark a greater interest in electronics," he remarked.
Supplementing the donations from ARRL members, the Memphis Wal-Mart has given the Mid-South Amateur Radio Association (MARA) $1000 to be split between the kids on the Gulf Coast and youngsters from the Gulf Coast at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
The ARRL thanks everyone who contributed to and
volunteered to assist in making the 2005 Holiday Toy Drive a success.
| Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Emergency Communications, a Youth-Focused hamfest and More | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
