Rowland elves pull through

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Richard Irwin

The head elf was worried. The toy workshops at Rowland High School were way behind in their toy quota for the busy holiday season.
The Marines would arrive the next day to pick up the donations for their annual Toys for Tots campaign. Something had to be done.
“We usually collect 500 toys for the Marines, but we only had about 300 when I went to lunch,” explained head elf and administrative assistant Christine Gonzalez. “I was disappointed because I thought there would be more need for the toys than ever.”
Call it holiday procrastination, but her fellow elves got the message and got busy — really busy.
“It was like magic! People started streaming into the office with toys that afternoon,” Gonzalez said, with a holiday twinkle in her eyes.
“Jose Camacho’s Spanish classes brought 194 toys for the Toys for Tots,” she continued. “That’s the second year they’ve gathered the most.”
Soon the high school had not only meet its goal, but had exceeded it handsomely. A total of 736 toys were gathered for the Marine Corps charity.