Annual trip to bring toys to Navajo

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — It’s not only a 4-year-old who has a big heart this holiday season. Navajo Nation law enforcement officers will be making their annual trip to California to pick up donations for the annual Toys for Tots give-away.

The Native American Toys for Tots program will be holding its annual toy giveaway on Dec. 21 at the Second Mesa Day School on Hopi beginning at 9 a.m.

“We invite everybody there. Everybody’s welcome,” Ophelia Begay, senior corrections officer, said.

Officers will also be making special trips out to homes across Navajo and Hopi to deliver presents for children beginning in the most rural areas.

This year 45 Navajo Nation officers will pick up the toys in California at about two dozen loading bases — bringing back thousands of toys for area tribes. They will leave Friday and return a week later. Other tribes also join in the effort bringing the total number to over 100 volunteers traveling to California.

Navajo Nation Police officers volunteer for the annual toy drive — working after hours and taking leave from work for the trip to California. Sometimes they are able to get sponsorship to pay for expenses such as meals and insurance. Otherwise, they have to foot their own expenses as well.

When the volunteers get back from picking up the toys at the bases, they get to work organizing the loads for the tribes to take back to their reservations.

The toys are distributed to 18 tribes at Camp Navajo in Flagstaff, Begay said.

When the officers arrive back to Navajo, they begin filling requests from organizations and schools which start coming in October.

“Then we go out knock on doors going house to house distributing toys until we run out or until Christmas,” Begay said.

Begay is unsure whether the economy will have an impact on how many toys they bring back.

“We won’t know until we get out there,” she said.