Portland, December 14th. Toy N Joy Makers will be able to offer Santa a bit more help thanks to the generosity of Jill Inskeep and her friends. Lynne Johnston, Kara Ilg, Cindy Plummer, and Debra Platt were among the many who donned their fun holiday sweaters and brought along toys for the Portland Fire and Rescue charity.
Jill Inskeep and Susie Porter pose with the Toy and Joy gifts brought by guests
Portland Toy N Joy Makers help low-income families in the Portland area give their children toys for Christmas. The Portland Fire Bureau’s Toy N Joy Makers started giving toys to needy children in 1914. Program organizers reach out to the community to make sure kids have toys for the holidays and mitigate a child’s tragedy of losing their toys due to fire, flood, earthquake and other natural or man made disasters. Friends at the ugly sweater gathering were happy to help out.
Janet Manneline and Catarina Hunter are good sports in their holiday sweaters
The ugly sweaters were conversation starters over coffee and tea
Eileen Pilkenton, Julia Furnary, Nancy Greene and Lyn Cameron
Designer labels were left at home in favor of colorful sweaters
Toy N Joy received the toys for the holidays
December 2010 Statistics for Toy N Joy
| Individual Family Orders Taken | 2912 Families (12,964 children) |
| Other Groups Assisted | 15 (3,000 children) |
| Total Children Assisted | 15,964 |
| Toys Given to Families | 51,856 |
| Total Toys Given Out | 67,856 |
| Toy Collection Boxes | 219 (Businesses and Organizations) |
| Speaking Engagements | 17 |
| Toys Collected | 40,000 |
| Toy value given out during season | 67,856 * $9.00 (avg retail cost) = $610,704.00 (approx) |
Toy N Joy Makers of the Portland Fire Bureau, relies heavily on the volunteers that are currently helping with the program. The following is a breakdown of some hours and time of operation of this program.
During the holiday season
(November 15 — December 27)
| Average number of volunteers helping during the day |
20 |
| Total estimated number of volunteer hours |
4320 |
| Total volunteer miles accumulated | 14,752 |
| Fire Company hours | 990 |
