In 1997, Wanda Thacker Martin and the late Dennis Thacker founded the first Brown County Toys for Kids event. Twenty-five Christmases later, the program is stronger than ever and the family behind the local institution wished to express their gratitude to the community for more than two decades of support.

“We want to thank the community for providing for us and helping us to provide,” Martin said. “I didn’t expect it to grow this big and to get so much support from the community. We put our hearts into this very hard. We believe in what we’re doing, and for 25 years we’ve got to do that.”

Martin and her three daughters – Stacee Hetzel, Krissi Prince, Carrie Walters, and their families – are still the driving forces behind Toys for Kids.

“It’s important to us, it’s not a job or a thing that we do,” Walters said. “It’s heartfelt.”

“This is our Christmas. People ask what we’re going to do for the holidays and I tell them we’re going to work in the toy building,” Hetzel said with a laugh. “This is a good thing for us. It feels good. I think back on that very first year to now and it’s a well-oiled machine now, but it’s not because of us.

Price added, “It really is our Christmas but it’s grown so much and Mom has organized it so well from the sign up process to get toys, to volunteering, to the day of, she’s got a person here and a person there. It’s just so organized.”

As much as Martin and her children are involved with Toys for Kids, she stated the family couldn’t do it by themselves.

“I have the best volunteers you could imagine,” Martin said. “To them, they put their hearts into it as much as we do. They love it, they look forward to it every year, and wouldn’t go without it. We definitely couldn’t do this by ourselves.”

“People from the community show up and do gift wrapping, people come and carry stuff to the cars, some people come and do nothing but help with people that need to be picked up and brought back,” Hetzel said. “It takes the whole community do to this project.”

Hetzel shared some of the details regarding the evolution of Toys for Kids from 1997 to now.

“The first few years we did it, they came and filled out an application and we bagged up items and then they picked up the bag,” Hetzel said. “Now they’re able to go into the warehouse now and shop basically. It looks like a store that’s all divided up into the boys and the girls and their ages. I love that it’s a personal thing where parents can come in and say they want A, B, and C and we can say that’s here, here and here. It’s just a personal touch.”

Prince added, “Back to the first few years, not only did we pick the toys and bag them for them, but most of the toys were used. They got a new toy and used toy, and we washed baby dolls, we washed stuffed animals, anything we could do to get the kids some toys. And now, they shop from all new stuff.”

Dealing with COVID a year ago presented some unique challenges, and the family is happy to be back to business as usual in 2021.

“I’m so excited,” Martin said. “This year we get to see all the volunteers, and we get to receive the hugs.”

“Last year with COVID we took all the precautions, spaced it out more so than we normally would,” Hetzel said. “Instead of having say 30 families in an hour we did half that, and that helped. I don’t think anyone felt like it was a bad year or they were hurt in any way.”

Prince said, “The biggest difference was not being able to accept as many volunteers that wanted to be here. There’s so many that wanted to be here and gift wrap last year, but we didn’t do that because we didn’t want people bunched up so we just sent gift wrapping home with them.”

Those who would like to sign up for Toys for Kids can do so from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning Monday, Nov. 29. Distribution day will take place Saturday, Dec. 18.

With Toys for Kids marking a quarter-century of existence, the family anticipates the program being passed down through generations for decades to come.

“I don’t see it ever ending for us,” Prince said. “My kids are so proud when they tell other kids, “My Mimi does this.’”

“It’ll just keep going from us to our kids to their kids,” Hetzel said.

“My oldest grandchild was born in 1997 so they’ve never known a Christmas without it,” Martin said. “We also have so many volunteers and every year it seems like we get a new one that falls in love with it.”

“A lot of people that depended on us for their kids’ Christmas, now they come back and volunteer,” Walters said.

“Full circle,” Hetzel said.