Seeing people in U.S. Marine uniforms collecting toys on Broadway has been a tradition in Bayonne since 1964, when members of the Bayonne Detachment of the U.S. Marine Corp League first parked their truck outside of what was then John’s Bargain Store.
Over the last 46 years, the Marine veterans stood out in every sort of weather for three days, gathering toys for kids who might not otherwise get any presents for Christmas.
“Every year, we seem to get bad weather for at least one day,” said Commander Lou Giovanni, who, along with several other key members of the league, has been involved with the toy drive every year since it started in 1964. “One year, we had a nor’easter, and we looked out from the post on Ninth Street to see the telephone poles swaying. The wind ripped off our signs from the side of the truck.”
“We’ve been doing this for 46 years. People always see us out there.” – Lou Giovanni
________
The detachment will be collecting toys outside McDonald’s at Broadway and 25th Street starting at around 9 a.m. on Dec. 9, and will continue their collection until the end of the business day on Dec. 11.
The start
In 1964, the Marine Corps League received help from the Marine unit in Newark, which supplied the truck into which the toys would be loaded.
“We formed a Young Marines unit and sang Christmas carols,” Giovanni recalled.
When the Marine unit moved from Newark to Red Bank, the local veterans reached out to the U.S. Army’s 469th Engineering Battalion, stationed at Caven Point Army Base in Jersey City. The battalion lent the use of an Army truck to help with the chore of collecting the toys. Then, when that unit moved, the always resourceful Marines formed a new partnership with the 716th Quartermaster unit, which currently supplies a truck.
“This year, Sgt. Antonio Rivera called me to ask me if we needed the truck,” Giovanni said.
“We’ve been doing this for 46 years,” Giovanni added. “People always see us out there. We always start on Thursday, and do it all day Friday and Saturday. The following Monday, we deliver the toys to the BEOF to distribute. When we first started, we used to collect the toys, and these got distributed to hospitals and orphanages in the area. Now, everything goes to children in Bayonne.”
Giovanni remembered one girl at a Staten Island home for the disabled who used to wait each year for the Marines to deliver a doll to her.
“For years, we used to take letters from people with the names of kids and their ages, and then we’d deliver them all over Bayonne,” he said.
Changed location a few times over the years
Although always on Broadway, the drive started near John’s Bargain Store near the historic Bayonne Clock. Later, the Marines moved up the block to Irwin’s Department store, where they collected toys for years until the store shut its doors in 2006.
“We tried to collect toys at the same corner the next year, but it was too dark. So we moved up the street to McDonald’s,” Giovanni said.
Some of the key people in this year’s drive include Giovanni, Robert Geis, Scott Cooper, and Al Czarnecki.
Giovanni said that locals for both the police and fire unions were active in this toy campaign, as well as the Bayonne Medical Center, several area pubs, and local businesses.
Sons of Italy in America will be holding a party on Dec. 7 and will be collecting toys for the drive. Another party, organized by the Concerned Citizens of Bayonne, will also be accepting gifts of toys to supply to the drive.
Giovanni said other places, such as taverns like Danny Boy’s, also frequently collect toys for the program.
The toys will be delivered to the offices of the Bayonne Equal Opportunity Foundation on Dec. 13, and will be distributed to kids based on need, a list developed in conjunction with the Bayonne School District, with whom the gift of toys are shared.