Seals' "Toys For Tots" Night Set for December 16th
Published on December 7, 2006 under SPHL (SPHL)
Florida Seals News Release
CELEBRATION, Fla. - Christmas is usually the happiest time of the year, especially if you are a child. Nothing can compare to the excitement of little boys and girls as they gleefully open the presents that they find under the tree on Christmas morning.
The Florida Seals professional hockey team doesn't want any child to miss out on the joy of the holiday. Today, they announced that the team will hold a "Toys For Tots" night on Saturday, December 16th when the Fayetteville FireAntz visit the Silver Spurs Arena for a 7:35 p.m. contest.
Started in 1947, the "Toys For Tots" campaign has become a staple of holiday giving. Operated by the United States Marine Corps, this yearly event had collected and distributed over 351 million toys to underprivileged children who otherwise might not have a happy holiday.
"The Seals are a community organization. Everything we do is for the community," Seals Director of Merchandising Steve White said. "We want to work with the community."
The Seals have set a goal of raising 10,000 toys for this year's event. As an incentive to help the Seals assist the Marine Corps with the campaign, hockey fans who bring a new, unwrapped toy to the game that night will receive a voucher that will allow them to purchase a game ticket for just $5.
The team already has a big head start on their goal thanks to the generosity of one of its season ticket holders. Kevin Tolbert, owner of Florida Scuba Adventures, and his wife set out after last year's drive to collect toys for the needy - a collection that now stands at over 2,000.
"We decided last year after the drive with the Seals that we wanted to turn it up a notch. We raised about 120 toys last year but this year we decided - my wife and I - that we were going to raise a lot," Tolbert, a resident of St. Cloud, said. "We started at the end of the season last year and we've collected over 2,000 personal toys for the Seals' team.
We want to promote the 10,000 mark for this "Toys For Tots" drive by promoting December 16th as "Toys For Tots Night". The object is with 8,800 seats in the Arena, if we can get one toy for each seat, with our 2,000 we've already got, we will get 10,000 toys in that night for the campaign."
When asked about why he is so committed to the "Toys For Tots" campaign, Tolbert said it was his way of giving back to the community.
"Our company is very successful locally and our company is successful locally because of the local community so we decided it was our way of giving back," he said. "We spent over $10,000 on these toys this year strictly to go back to our community. That's why we are encouraging anyone to participate in the campaign because the toys stay local."
Tolbert and the Seals' organization would like to see participation from all over the region, especially from the many hockey fans in the area.
"We want all of Central Florida, not just Kissimmee and St. Cloud, to participate. We don't want this to be a local event. We want it to be a Central Florida wide event," he added. "We want to encourage all the people who used to be (Orlando) Solar Bears fans to come on down to Kissimmee. We do still have a team. It is still here but it's just a little further south."
SPHL Stories from December 7, 2006
- Seals' "Toys For Tots" Night Set for December 16th - Florida Seals
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