Toys for Tots began bringing toys to needy children in 1947.
The program began in Los Angeles through the efforts of Marine Corps Reserve Major Bill Hendricks and a group of local Marine reservists. Hendricks was inspired when his wife, Diane, made a Raggedy Ann doll for a child but could not find an organization to deliver it. The Marines organized a collection campaign and gathered about 5,000 toys during that first year.
The original effort was local, but it quickly attracted wider attention. In 1948, the Marine Corps expanded Toys for Tots into a national campaign. Hendricks also used his Warner Bros. public-relations position to gain celebrity support, while Walt Disney’s artists helped design the program’s familiar red toy-train logo.
A common mix-up is confusing the founding year with later changes. Until 1979, volunteers often collected and refurbished used toys; beginning in 1980, the program accepted only new toys. Toys for Tots remains associated primarily with Christmas, though it has since added book and literacy initiatives.