Welcome to The Elfster Podcast, brought to you by Elfster, a gifting platform that strengthens social bonds by increasing acts of generosity. In each episode, we sit down with an expert to share stories about digital retail trends and talk about the future of e-commerce. Our host is Peter Imburg, the CEO and Founder of Elfster, who has dedicated his career to connecting communities, audiences and brands.
In this episode of the Elfster Podcast we speak with Retired Marine Corps Colonel Ted Silvester, currently the VP of Marketing and Development for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. He shares stories about his service as well as the humble beginnings of Toys for Tots. Learn more about Peter and Ted here:
Peter ImburgPeter Imburg:
Hi, this is Peter Imburg, founder and CEO of Elfster with a special episode of our podcast. Today, I have with me, Colonel Ted Silvester, retired from the US Marine Corps, who is, today, the vice president of marketing and development at the Marines' Toys for Tots. Welcome Ted.
Ted Silvester:strong>
Thanks, Peter. It's a pleasure to be here talking to you and your audience, and love to share some background and some information on Toys for Tots with you today.
Peter Imburg:
Okay, great. Well, I can't wait. I had the experience a few years ago to go visit you in Quantico, Virginia, the home of the foundation. And I thought I knew a thing or two about Toys for Tots until I spent a little time there. And I was just absolutely amazed at the good work that you do, the scope of it, and the wonderful team that makes it all happen. So I thought it would be really exciting to have this podcast to let other people get a little bit of a taste of that and grow their respect for what you do.
Peter Imburg:
So I think the first thing to note is that this is closely affiliated with the Marines, the US Marine Corps. And I know the Marines are a very, very special body in the States. I know that my father-in-law was a Marine, and although it was over 50 years ago that he was in the Marines, it was probably one of his proudest affiliations outside of his family and lifelong friends. He was a very, very proud Marine, and he had seen the world and done his service to the country. You were also a Marine, or are forever a Marine serving as a naval aviator and achieving the rank of Colonel in the Marine Corps. I'm wondering about when you decided to become a Marine?
Ted Silvester:strong>
Sure, sure. I got to tell you, it was an incredible 25 plus years serving in the Marine Corps. Particularly for me as an aviator, my grandfather, back in the day when I was a little kid, he lived up near Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire. And when I would visit him, he would take me to Pease Air Force Base, and we watch aircraft, the F-111s and the KC-135 tankers take off and land really close right up into the approach and there on the fence. So that always kind of peaked my interest in aviation. And then I had an uncle who was in the Air Force for several decades. And he was also an aviator.
Ted Silvester:strong>
So very close to them growing up. He was always very influential, and just talking about his experiences in the service and particularly as an aviator too. So it kind of always had me kind of thinking about that, leaning towards it. And one day, I was at college, and it was an armed services day. They had all the services. They had their recruiters there. So I was walking down the aisle there towards the chow hall, get some lunch one day in-between classes, and there was a captain [inaudible 00:04:01] and a Marine gunny there, and they were with the local recruiters there. And they had this little TV with a VCR in it showing some video footage of F-18s, and Harriers, and some of their Westpac tours. And they had a picture book out there.
Ted Silvester:strong>
And from that second on, I was kind of in it 100%. So I'm like, "Hey, where can a guy like me sign up to do something [inaudible 00:04:24]." And they got me. They got me that day. And I was pretty fortunate to make it through all the training and flight school, and eventually was selected to fly F-18s, and got to do that for many years. So it was just a great opportunity.
Peter Imburg:
Oh, that's wonderful. It seems like your background coupled with being at the right place at the right time for the recruits was where the magic started. How soon after you had gotten into the Marines did you become familiar with the Toys for Tots program?
Ted Silvester:strong>
Yeah. Well, I had several duty assignments to some of our reserve locations. And one of them was in Atlanta, at Naval Air Station Atlanta, and Atlanta happens to be our largest Toys for Tots campaign. Of course, we'll talk about this a little bit, but Toys for Tots has over 800 local campaigns in all 50 states, but the one in Atlanta was pretty massive. And so I got to be exposed to the local campaign there pretty significantly. I was there for a few years and seeing how it works.
Ted Silvester:strong>
At first, as a Marine, I wasn't even sure what the Toys for Tots program was about until I got my feet involved in it a lot in the fall timeframe, just seeing, just that one campaign, how many individuals and organizations that collect toys, and the local media, getting the call to action out there, and so many businesses supporting to allow our Marines to distribute those toys to less fortunate children in the surrounding counties there, and just seeing that impact, seeing some parents those are the only toys that they're going to get for their kids that Christmas or whatever holiday they celebrated there. And it was pretty, pretty impressive seeing that up close and personal.
Peter Imburg:
Yeah, I bet. And it's incredible how all that comes together, what seems like suddenly, and the enormous scope of it, and impact, and the emotional impact of each and every toy that reaches a family and a kid. That must been amazing to see the first time there. Is that something that you started doing every year, or how did it go that you developed your interest as much as it has grown?
Ted Silvester:strong>
Yeah. While I was there, I was stationed there for just over five years, long time in Marine Corps standards for that there. But seeing it year after year, again, it's just a connection there. And you got to keep in mind, a Marine Corps reserve unit, and we have over 150 reserve sites throughout the US, there's a handful of full-time active duty Marines there that assist day-to-day in-between when the drilling Marines are there and present. So for the few folks, what we call INI inspector, instructor staff, they're pretty busy. They're wearing three, four hats as it is any given day.
Ted Silvester:strong>
And when October rolls around, it's a three month process to run a Toys for Tots campaign. It's very intensive, time consuming, takes a big volunteer network. So you're already busy at a Marine reserve duty station, and then you got to also run a campaign. So it is a lot of effort. And my hat's off to all these Marines and volunteers that make it happen. So few folks are making such a big impact. They still have their training, their deployments, all ground training, all kinds of things that you have to do on any given day, and then they run a campaign on top of that. And here they are at the end of the campaign, looking at distributing toys to 7 million less fortunate children [crosstalk 00:09:02] their daily activities.
Ted Silvester:strong>
And it's not just the Marines. We have a lot of Toys for Tots campaigns outside of Marine Reserve units. So we have about 800 of them altogether, a little over 800. 650 of them are not co-located with a Marine unit. So we have guys and gals like me that were Marine veterans, or a lot of them are run by the Marine Corps League detachment, and then just a lot of individuals as well that just never had any service time or anything, but just didn't have a Toys for Tots campaign in the area, so they submitted an application, wanted to start one in their county, and we got it up and running.
Ted Silvester:strong>
And all these folks, they have full-time employment and lives like the rest of us, but they make it happen. They kind of put their lives on hold for a couple of months, and they mobilize. Like I said, they handled 19 million toys last year to 7 million kids in a very short period of time. So it's just the incredible work of our Marines and volunteers that actually make it happen in all those localities.
Peter Imburg:
It is wonderful to see. I feel like that this is so closely tied to the spirit of being a Marine, that retired Marines in areas that are not served just feel that call, and all the volunteers that come together in the spirit of helping, as you said, 7 million of the less fortunate kids, who might not get a toy or Christmas or other holiday present without the support of this massive campaign. So this started with kind of humble beginnings. I recall being in the history room at your headquarters, and fascinating history and relatively modest where it started. As I recall, it's William Hendricks was the founder, a reservist Colonel who wanted to help his wife find a way to donate a present. Is that right?
Ted Silvester:strong>
Yeah, that's exactly right. He was then a major in the Marine Corps Reserves, and it was 1947. And of course it was soon after World War II. And there were a lot of orphan children around the area. He was in Los Angeles, and his wife, handmade kind of a Raggedy Ann looking type dolls, had several dolls. And so she asked her husband Bill to go find an organization that would take these dolls and deliver them to children in need, most likely orphan children at the time after World War II. And so he went about and couldn't find anything. So he came back and reported to his wife, Diana he couldn't find any organizations. So it was, it was her that at that moment said, "Well, Bill, why don't you start your own?"
Ted Silvester:strong>
So he started with those dolls and gathered up his Marines in his unit in Los Angeles back in 1947. And they collected 5,000 toys and distributed them to a couple thousand children that year, that Christmas season. And that's how it got its start. And at the same time, President Truman and Secretary of Defense Johnson were really looking to get rid of the Marine Corps. They were working really hard to say, "We don't need a Marine Corps," after World War II was done. So then Commandant General Cates saw so much goodwill and really effect that that one unit in LA had with the community and all the goodness that they had. So he then the very next year, 1948, directed all the reserve units to conduct a Toys for Tots campaign.
Ted Silvester:strong>
So then it became national in just one year. And of course Major Bill Hendricks at the time also worked at Warner Brothers in public relations and whatnot. So he was tied into movies, the movie business. And he was actually personal friends with Walt Disney. So he asked Walt Disney to create a poster for the toys for tots campaign in 1948. And he did, and that was the very first poster. And in that poster, I guess Walt Disney really loved trains. So in the bottom of that poster, he had the three car train at the bottom, which has since become the Toys for Tots logo that everybody knows and sees all over the place. So it was actually Walt Disney himself who designed our logo many years ago.
Peter Imburg:
Wow. You couldn't ask for a more extraordinary illustrator to come up with a logo. And that logo really stood the test of time, a wonderful brand. I think its brand recognition is probably as good as any brand in America with the iconic trains there, and I didn't realize it was for Walt Disney's personal interest in trains. That's funny. Wow. So it went national the first year, and has it ever missed a year since that first year?
Ted Silvester:strong>
No, no. And that never missed a year. Of course, there were some times, back in the Korean War, a lot of our Marines, our reservists work were activated and mobilized. So there were a lot of locations that we still had a campaign for a couple of those years, but it was fewer toys collected, fewer children during that time period. But what was remarkable, the volunteer outreach and connection with local businesses and the American public still had some level of toy collecting and distribution during those years when most of our reserve units were mobilized and sent overseas here. But fast forward to here we are 73 years later, and our Marines and volunteers distribute an average of 18 million toys to 7 million less fortunate children in a very short time period.
Peter Imburg:
Wow.
Ted Silvester:strong>
It is-
Peter Imburg:
Yeah, that is incredible. It's a massive campaign. And as you said, it starts in October, runs three months. Of course, there's two distinct phases of it. There's that collection phase with the iconic bins that are there to collect toys, and that runs for a period of time. And then all of a sudden you're flip and turn on a dime and make sure that you can get all the right toys to the right kids all around the US. Is that right?
Peter Imburg:
Yeah. So really more than that than just two modes. There's a lot of things happening simultaneously. Our coordinators, each campaign is led by a single person who we call the coordinator, who's the lead to our Tots representative for each of the local campaigns, and he or she puts together a volunteer network. In October, they kind of setting up, working with local businesses to establish where the toy collection drives are going to be. And then they're also identifying the need in their communities. We're identifying the families with children. So that's ongoing, and that's a big effort.
Ted Silvester:strong>
So while toy drives really kind of become the center of the public's attention is probably right after Thanksgiving, Black Friday and all that. That's when people really kind of getting serious about doing their Christmas shopping. And that's also when a lot of our local toy drives, all those bins are filling up pretty quickly around the country. And you're right. There a certain point where those local campaigns, they switch over from collecting toys, and now when they collect toys, they're also sorting them in their warehouse. They got to break them down by age and gender, and then match them up to the number of children that they're trying to support. Now, that's not an easy feat. It takes a lot of hands and a lot of coordination there. So at some point, they slow down with the toy collections, and now they're distributing those toys after matching them up to the families and getting them into the hands of, well, we get them to the parents. And the parents kind of protect the magic of Santa Claus and Christmas. And the kids don't know that they're coming from Toys for Tots or the Marine program.
Peter Imburg:
Yeah. When I saw the vastness of the scale, and you explained to me before how this works, I had young kids who were at that age where they're starting to question, "Hey, kids are telling me that Santa Claus is your parents. Is this true? Does Santa Claus really exist?" And after seeing the operation up close and hearing you describe the way this works, the way you just did for me, I had no problem at all telling my kids at Santa Claus does exist. And the way I thought in my mind is that if your parents can take care of the toys, they're Santa, and if they can't, Toys for Tots is going to be there. And so absolutely Santa exists.
Peter Imburg:
And I was thinking I was pretty convincing when I told them that, and they might be a little unhappy if I share right now, but they believed in Santa a little longer than most of the other kids, and I think it was probably my fault for that. But nonetheless, I still believe that. I actually still believe that I believe that Santa Claus is the spirit of the people to take care of the kids, to experience the magic of the holidays. And you provide the safety net to make sure that every single kid gets that, hopefully.
Ted Silvester:strong>
Oh, well, Peter, it's been said that there's no worse enemy and no better friend than the Marine Corps. So the Marine toys certainly exemplifies the no better friend part, and the Marines do it too, and all the volunteers do it in pretty grand fashion. They're making it happen. They're making it happen. And especially in a year like this year, we're collecting fewer toys locally because so many businesses are shut down or folks are furloughed and working from home, no toy collection bins, a lot fewer of them all around. Plus so many folks that are furloughed in our work, many more families are seeking our holiday help this year too. It's kind of like a double-edged sword, but our Marines in true fashion are just accomplishing the mission however they need to do it. They're getting creative. And we have incredible support from so many wonderful partners and sponsors of the program that we had the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation augment millions of toys to local campaigns this year just so that they can answer the request from every family that's seeking their help this year.
Peter Imburg:
Well, that's great. It's amazing, as you said, this double double-edged sword with more people on hard times and fewer collection bins. I know it's getting very late in the season here. We're close to Christmas. Is there anything else people can do to help right now to help the Toys for Tots?
Ted Silvester:strong>
Absolutely. We're a few days away from Christmas. So I think most of our local campaigns are not collecting toys. They are distributing them. However, they still have big needs. So what we are doing here at the foundation, we're buying a lot of toys, and we have some great vendors that can take an order and process them and have them show up in like one or two days in their warehouses. So if folks are able to, we'd love the help if they can go to toysfortots.org and make a donation through our website. We're going to have a lot of toy bills, a lot of invoices to cover from now, or into early 2021. But that's a problem for us to figure it out next year. [inaudible 00:22:49] make sure that the toys are getting into the hands of those children who need them this holiday season.
Peter Imburg:
All right. Well, thank you for that suggestion. And just in case you haven't had a chance to walk by a toy bin, then going to toysfortots.org and making a cash donation can really help complete the mission for this year as well. Well, Ted, thank you so much for joining us. It's really been a pleasure, and it's fascinating to hear the history of Toys for Tots, and how you got into this, and how you make it happen each year. I love the quote you said, "Marines, there's no worse enemy, and there's no better friend." That is so true. We appreciate everything the Marines do for our country every day for their core mission and what they do on top of that for the whole country and for the families and kids that need a little help through the Toys for Tots program is the best of this country period. Love them.
Ted Silvester:strong>
Well, thank you, Peter. Really appreciate that. It's been great to speak with you and share the Toys for Tots story with your audience. Toys for Tots has a pretty good reach, helps a lot of kids, but we wouldn't see that kind of success were it not for the generosity of the American public. It's American public each year that lets Toys for Tots have such a reach to so many kids. And it's our corporate sponsors that really extends that reach very significantly. So thank you for helping us to raise awareness and get our story out there.
Peter Imburg:
It's been absolutely my pleasure. Thanks again. Ted.
Ted Silvester:strong>
All right. Merry Christmas.
Peter Imburg:
Merry Christmas.