SARASOTA, Fl. -- On a sunny day outside Sarasota City Hall, volunteers place a box of colorful toys in the trunk of a white SUV.
There's a purple and turquoise Spalding basketball, a mermaid playset, and a plethora of other playthings to be donated to children around the Sarasota area for Christmas.
A Marine veteran and Information Technology manager, Willie Holland has been running the city’s Toys for Tots drive for 18 years. This holiday season, city staff and local residents donated toys at City Hall and the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex.
Holland doesn’t get to meet the families receiving the gifts, but he hopes the presents have an impact.
“As long as I can put a smile on a kid’s face, that’s all that matters to me,” he said.
His service in the Marines
Toys for Tots, which was founded in 1947, is run by the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Holland served active duty in the Marines during the late ’80s and early ’90s. He was stationed at Camp David – the President’s country residence in Maryland – where he was part of the security detail.
“It’s a rewarding role,” he said, “because not many get that opportunity to do that coming straight out of boot camp.”
President George H.W. Bush celebrated Christmas at Camp David during Holland’s tenure. He remembers playing wallyball – a sport that is akin to volleyball but played in a racquetball court – with the Bush family.
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The Marines won some matches. The Bushes won some. But Holland noted that his team didn’t just let the president’s family win.
“The thing that he liked about playing the Marines is we didn’t allow him to win because he was the President,” Holland said. “We were very competitive with the President, and so was his family.”
After his tenure in the Marines, Holland worked in telecommunications while studying IT at night school. In 2000, he was hired by Sarasota to work for the IT department, and he has been employed by the city ever since.
Continuing to serve through volunteering
Holland decided to start running the city of Sarasota’s Toys for Tots drive because he had served in the Marines.
“Being a Marine veteran, I thought it was the closest thing that I can do to honor Marines and continue the tradition that Marines have when it comes to Toys for Tots,” he said.
Ensuring that people participate is one of the challenges of organizing the toy drive, Holland said.
“You got to try to figure out creative ways to get that participation from employees because … it’s just a volunteer-type of thing,” he said.
One solution has been to encourage city staff to donate toys during employee appreciation luncheons. The city has held raffles at these meals, and employees must bring an unwrapped toy to participate in the raffle.
The donated toys are then taken to facilities where they are sorted by age group, but Holland isn’t involved in that process.
The longtime city employee likes how Toys for Tots benefits children who are less fortunate.
“Christmas is a happy time,” he said. “You want to continue to put a smile on people’s faces, even though they could be leading all kinds of different hardships that – we just don’t know what they’re going through.”