32nd Annual Toy-Ful Celebration! Concert At Glenview Community Church

Bring your family to the 32nd Annual Toy-ful Celebration concert at the Glenview Community Church, 1000 Elm in Glenview on Saturday, December 6th at 7:00pm. Join the Toy Choir, with featured soloist Tricia Melzer-Swaydrak, for a festive evening of holiday music and fun. Doors open at 6:30; Christmas carol sing along starts at 6:45. This concert benefits the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots initiative. The concert is free, but please bring an unwrapped new toy (or toys) to donate to the Marines to help make a child’s Christmas morning a little brighter. If you cannot come to the concert, please consider dropping off new toys at any of the Glenview Fire Department’s Toys for Tots boxes.

Tricia Melzer-Swaydrak began the “Toy-ful Celebration!” concert at the Glenview Community Church in 1993. She reached out to Marine Air Control Group 48, which was located at the Naval Air Base in Glenview at that time. The Marines have come to appear at the concert every year since then, even though they moved to Highwood in 1995 and five years later moved to their current location at the Great Lakes Naval Station. “I began it in my father’s honor. He was a Marine at Glenview Naval Air Station in the 1950s,” Ms. Melzer-Swaydrak said. “He became a fireman in Glenview and collected toys for Toys for Tots for many years when I was young.” Ms. Melzer-Swaydrak is a frequent soloist in the Chicago area.

Toys for Tots began in the fall of 1947 when Diane Hendricks, the wife of Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, crafted a homemade doll with the intention of giving it to a needy child at Christmas. When they discovered that no agency existed to do this, Bill started one. In civilian life Hendricks was the Director of Public Relations for Warner Brothers Studio and had the idea of putting a toy collection barrel outside of the company’s movie theaters. He partnered with

journalist and fellow Marine John Hampton to lead the toy collections in the area. Hendricks convinced a vast array of celebrities to support Toys for Tots. Walt Disney designed the logo, which is still in use today, and in 1948 Toys for Tots became a nationwide initiative. Toys for Tots became a foundation in 1991.

The Village of Glenview collects toys at the five fire stations in Glenview. Along with the toys collected at the concert, the Glenview toy collection has grown to more than 2,000 toys annually.

Glenview Community Church is located at 1000 Elm Street (at Glenview Road). The building is handicap accessible and has free onsite parking. It is 3 blocks west of the Glenview Metra North train station.

Visit www.gccucc.org, email simplegifts@gccucc.org, or call 847-724-2210 for further details.