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<\/p>\nWhen Reed Marcum was little, he discovered that some kids in McAlester, Oklahoma, where he lived, had no toys beneath their Christmas trees.<\/p>\n
Being a timid child who experienced bullying at school, Reed was used to feeling excluded, thus he was able to recall the event with great clarity. <\/p>\n
The idea that his fifth-grade friend wouldn’t find anything under the tree was difficult to hear, <\/p>\n
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even if his parents split when he was just 7 years old. Nevertheless, there were others who stepped in to make Christmas time wonderful.<\/p>\n
For whatever reason\u2014his heart or his melancholy\u2014he suggested to his mother that they arrange a toy drive with a format akin to the backpack drive they had managed the previous year. <\/p>\n
Angie Miller, Reed’s mother, shared a video on Facebook outlining her son’s plans and solicited gift <\/p>\n
donations or cash to purchase toys for a giveaway that Reed had chosen to carry out as a 4-H project.<\/p>\n
Many individuals went out and purchased new toys to contribute, or they gave money for us to purchase them, Miller said. \u2018There was a great response,\u2019 Miller said.<\/p>\n
That was all seven years ago, and even now, as a freshman in college, Reed still makes the two-and-a-half-hour trek home from his Stillwater campus to take part in the toy drive, which is in its sixth year.<\/p>\n
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This year’s drive-through giveaway is expected to provide 10,000 toys, with excited children in the rear seats <\/p>\n
indicating to their parents which toy they choose. A pair of socks, underwear, pants, a shirt, gloves, and a cap are also given to each child.<\/p>\n
\u2018We have walls of toys lined up on each side of the cars, and kids tell us which ones to grab as their parents drive them through the line,\u2019<\/p>\n
Reed, who studies prelaw and sociology at OK State University, told the Washington Post. \u2018The best part is always witnessing the joyous expressions on their faces.\u2019<\/p>\n
To date, 54,000 toys have been distributed to children in McAlester, which regrettably has a 24% poverty rate based on global figures.<\/p>\n
By launching more charity initiatives, Reed keeps carrying out what he believes to be a return favor for the generosity his family experienced more than ten years ago. <\/p>\n
In addition to carrying on the backpack giveaways he began with his mother when he was just 11 years old, he organizes silent auctions to support children with cancer.<\/p>\n