This letter is a thank you note to the citizens of Helena, Lewis and Clark County and the great state of Montana. The 2005 Toys for Tots Campaign has drawn to a successful conclusion. The volunteers wish to thank everyone for the outpouring of their love to our less fortunate families and children of our community.

This year we were able to give the children more than four gifts, hoping to make this Christmas the best ever for our fellow citizens. As I read over the notes and figures on the year's operation and volunteers' hours donated to our community, it deeply humbles me. This year we have taken care of 2,279 children in the Helena area and 6,766 children in the outlying areas of our state. We collected 15,256 toys from our barrels/boxes, which were placed at local businesses. Some of the businesses held special parties in which the employees brought a toy for the Toys for Tots program - this type of cooperation came as a pleasant surprise. We purchased 955 (mostly bicycles for the young children) toys locally and received over 202,082 toys/books/ DVDs/videos and 33,772 Beanie Babies from the Toys for Tots Foundation and corporations from out of state. Without the outside assistance, we would not have been able to assist others in need. Scholastic Books, Tasco, Big Lots, Jakks to name but a few, are the out-of-state businesses that assisted your Toys for Tots Program. With all the donations, we were able to help distribute the gifts to local nonprofit organizations as well as outlying nonprofit service organizations; this included six Indian reservations. We now have a carryover of 15,256 toys and books for the 2006 campaign. It must also be noted that we assist the local families that have been burned out of their homes and those families that are in need of toys/books throughout the year due to grievous emergency.

For the Toys for Tots Program to work, we need help from volunteers, donors, businesses and schools as well as the civilian population. Thank you for all you do for our community. You are to be commended for all the hours of dedicated time. The Toys for Tots Planning Committee and the Salvation Army have also done one fine job with the administration of the program. We had 80 volunteers, and they had a cumulative total of 1,621 donated hours.

A very special thanks to Robert Morgan for all his help in making this year's Toys for Tots Campaign a memorable one and to those fine folks that contributed financially to our program.

James E. Heffernan is a organizers with the Toys for Tots Planning Committee.