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Seattle Action Team: How Many Toys Can You Stuff in a Bus? Action Team Captains Help Give New Meaning to “Holiday Toy Drive” So how many toys can you stuff in a bus? We’re talking a big bus – like one you might take for a special school trip. If you guessed in the thousands, you hit the mark! Last year in Everett, Washington, some 2,000 toys and nearly 3,000 pounds of nonperishable food filled a 35-foot bus to the brim. The Stuff-a-Bus Project is happening again this year, and the Seattle Action Team is onboard to help provide children and families in need with a happier holiday. Everett is a small city some 30 miles north of Seattle. The Stuff-a-Bus Project benefits the Volunteers of America Western Washington’s Family and Children’s Services in Everett. Project sponsors are the City of Everett Transit and the local bus drivers’ union, ATU Local 883. For consecutive Saturdays – November 29, December 6, and December 13 this year – a city bus adorned with holiday decorations is parked in front of a local department/grocery store. The goal: to fill every seat to the ceiling with toys and more!
Steering Shoppers in the Direction of Giving When the bus arrives for stuffing, that’s when Seattle Action Team Captains and teens they’ve recruited, plus other volunteers, get going. Dressed in seasonal style and offering warm smiles in the chilly air, Action Team members greet holiday shoppers at the store entrances. They distribute fliers about the project and encourage caring citizens to add a toy, mittens, socks, or other suggested items to their shopping carts to help Stuff the Bus for those in need. Volunteers also man decorated barrels outside the store for collecting donations. As the barrels fill, they’re brought to the bus with fanfare. Imagine the excitement as the toys stack up higher and higher inside the bus! Donated food comes from a separate collection drive and from shoppers who put canned items in the Stuff-a-Bus barrels. “We always have folks who are incredibly generous,” says Caterina Tassara-Vaubel, Director of Family and Children’s Services for Volunteers of America Western Washington. “Last year we had a man who came out of the store with a bicycle for the bus! We receive some gently used items, but 99.9% are brand new.” Collecting the toys is only one leg of the Stuff-a-Bus drive. Once the bus is filled, it heads to the local Volunteers of America offices. There, Action Team members assist with unloading (a job in itself!), sorting, and wrapping the hundreds of items. When appropriate, the teens help distribute gifts, too. “It’s a very personal program,” explains Martina Welke, Youth Action Team Coordinator for Volunteers of America Western Washington. Careful thought is put into deciding where each toy should go. A preschool, children of incarcerated parents, and the local food bank all receive Stuff-a-Bus donations. “It’s a fun project – and that’s what we emphasize as we recruit other teens to volunteer,” says Seattle Action Team Captain Mackenzie Hammon, a sophomore at Sultan High School. “Plus, when you do something to help at the holidays, it’s more fulfilling.” [Meet Mackenzie, the Action Team Captain of the Month, at Teens in Action.] How to Stuff a Bus in 6 Festive Steps If a toy drive or food collection in your school or community feels stuck in a rut, give it some gas with your own version of Stuff-a-Bus. There’s still time to plan a smaller-scale collection in December, such as filling a small bus or van in one weekend. Or plan a bigger project in 2009, with the goal of collecting toys, school supplies, books, or whatever you decide for children who are hospitalized, homeless, or have other needs. 1: Team Up with Project Partners You need a bus to stuff, a store parking lot as your base of operations, a place to house the bus as it’s being filled, a space for unloading the donations after the bus is filled and for sorting them, and a nonprofit group to accept and distribute the items. Reach out to similar core participants as in the Everett project, or consider other possibilities in your community, such as a private bus company and locating the bus in a town parking lot near many stores. Your school may have a secure space for storing and sorting the donated items, or use the nonprofit’s location. When you arrange for the bus, decide who will decorate it – the owner or project volunteers. You want the bus to stand out in the spirit of the season. 2: Agree on Dates and Duration Decide in cooperation with your partners if the Stuff-a-Bus Project will go one weekend or several. Be sure the nonprofit agrees on the end dates for filling the bus and delivering the donated items. The Stuff-a-Bus Project in Everett begins the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and runs for consecutives Saturdays through the middle of December.
3: Get the Stuff-a-Bus Word Out Don’t just count on shoppers who happen to show up to fill your bus. Create posters and fliers to inform about the project and the collection dates in advance. Add an announcement to your school and community Web sites. Build excitement for meeting the goal of stuffing the bus with toys or other items. 4: Decorate Collection Barrels or Boxes Collection bins for dropping off toys are a convenience. Plus, controlling how the toys are added to the bus allows you to keep count of the donated items as the volume grows. Any large barrel or box will do. Ask a merchant that sells large appliances to donate cartons in good condition. Cover with seasonal wrapping paper or other festive decorations. You’ll need several bins to place outside the participating store(s). 5: Recruit Volunteers as Stuff-a-Bus Cheerleaders When the bus is on display and ready to be filled, you need volunteers in front of the participating store(s) to encourage shoppers to donate, hand out fliers with ideas of what to give, manage the collection barrels and, overall, generate enthusiasm for the Stuff-a-Bus challenge. In Everett, Seattle Action Team Captains and other volunteers put in full days – 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. – on the Stuff-a-Bus Saturdays. 6: Celebrate When the Bus is Filled – Then Unload and Sort Invite local media to record your progress as the bus fills with donations and when it’s brimming with toys. Then organize an assembly line of volunteers to unload the bus. You’ll also need volunteers to sort toys by age or gender. (Check with the nonprofit distributing the items about whether or not to wrap them.) Be sure you get plenty of photos of all phases of the project, for documenting its success and promoting your Stuff-a-Bus drive next year.
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