Bringing Joy to Racine's Children

Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots is a local non-profit charitable organization serving Racine County by ensuring that children of families in need receive gifts for Christmas. The program relies on the community for monetary donations and new and used toys of all kinds for children newborn through age ten. Volunteers work throughout the year to get items ready for gift-giving at Christmas. They rework, repaint, stitch, patch, clean and polish donated used toys until they look like new. These toys are distributed early in December to parents who are not able to afford Christmas presents for their children.

In 1929, at the time of the Great Depression, the Racine Boy Scouts began a food and gift-giving program. At about the same time, another community effort was taking shape in Racine. Several civic-minded people, who included a popular columnist for the Journal Times named Tex Reynolds, decided to help the community by also providing food baskets and toys to needy families at Christmas.

Shortly after, the Scouts’ Toys for Tots program needed help with funding so they went to Reynolds and the Good Fellers for help. Reynolds was asked to publicize the program’s need for money in his newspaper column. After that a community tradition was born, as Good Fellers became a fundraising organization with Toys for Tots as its main beneficiary. The program flourished with overwhelming support from the community and the holiday tradition of Toys for Tots was born. Eventually, it was renamed Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots in honor of his contribution to the program’s success.

Since 1974, the Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots workshop has been located in the basement of the City Hall Annex at 800 Center Street in Racine. In 1997, they began coordinating their toy distribution with the Corporate Volunteer Council of Racine’s Giving Tree program that works with local Racine companies to provide new clothing items to a portion of the registered children signed up to receive toys.

Each January the process begins and continues throughout the year. The campaign to collect donated toys, bicycles, dolls, vehicles, games, puzzles, books and stuffed animals never ends. Volunteers working from the shop or from home invest countless hours to refurbish donated items. It’s a labor of love for these special people who give their time and skills to make the Christmas holidays special for needy children in Racine County.

If you have toys that are no longer needed or being used, Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots will take them and give them a new home. Toys do not have to be in great condition to be accepted. Volunteers can work miracles with a little paint, fabric, glue and some tender loving care. What you’ll find is that the people at Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots take a lot of pride in their work.

For toy donations, drop them off at any local Racine County fire station east of the interstate, in the red shed at Kortendick Ace Hardware, 3806 Douglas Avenue, Racine or bring them to the workshop. Toys are needed all year-long to work on, not just the last few months of the year.

The workshop is primarily open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. From Memorial Day in May through Labor Day in September, the workshop is open on Wednesdays only. After Labor Day, the shop returns to a three-day work week until the Christmas distribution program ends in mid-December.

The gift-giving program known as Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots began nearly 100 years ago by the Boy Scouts of Racine. Since that time, it has been sustained by the Good Fellers organization and the generosity of the community. Please consider Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots for your toy donations and financial support.

Contact information for Tex Reynolds’ Toys for Tots is 262-633-1379 and tft.racine@att.net. The mailing address is 800 Center Street, Racine, WI 53403 and the program’s website is www.texreynoldstoysfortots.com.