In the toy drive trenches

Community newspapers run many stories about toy drives and other such charitable activities, especially at this time of year.
Recently, at New York Hospital Queens there was just such an event - a toy drive sponsored by their “Freedom Medical Aid Team” (FreeMAT).
It was for one of the most worthy causes - needy children of reservists in the U.S. Army’s 77th Regional Readiness Command, which operates out of Fort Totten in Bayside.
In peacetime, these men and women reservists are called “Weekend Warriors.” In the last few years, however, some of these fathers and mothers have been deployed overseas for a year or more. Many have been deployed two or even three times and face financial hardship along with danger.
As Catherine Ferran, the civilian Director of Family Programs for the 77th explained, “Some of our soldiers, after multiple deployments, have a hard time re-integrating into civilian life.
“They wind up with financial hardships. This wonderful help we’re getting can make the holidays for their kids,” she said.
Since 2003, FreeMAT has collected toys for these Army kids at their Ambulance Parking Facility, on 164th Street in Flushing, not far from the hospital.
They use out-of-service ambulances to transport the toys to the fort, where they are sorted for the children of reservists at the various units of the 77th, which are scattered around the metro area.
“We collected 1,470 toys last year,” said Peter Kwaith, Assistant Ambulance Supervisor with FreeMAT. “This year, we’ve collected 1,090 toys as of today (December 6), and our goal is to top 2,000,” he said.
There were so many toys that Kwaith couldn’t get them all in his rig. Not surprisingly, a couple of noncoms in a van helped with the loading and transportation.