The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
There’s still time to play Santa Claus for local families in need.
Somerset Family Physical Therapy, 14M Worlds Fair Drive, is a drop-off point for the Marine Corps Reserves Toys For Tots program, and they’ll be taking donations through Dec. 11.
Megan Gonzalez, the practice’s receptionist, brought the program in about three years ago, she said.
“When I was going to college, I was going to be an early childhood teacher,” she said. “I was volunteering in a few different schools, and I got to see the kids that were struggling and were going to be affected.”
“I wanted to make a difference in our town,” said Gonzalez, a Franklin Township native.
Gonzalez’s husband was still an active-duty Marine when she got the idea to create a Toys for Tots drop-off point in the physical therapy office.
“I thought it would work out well because people are here twice a week,” she said. “People really, really love it, and they love how convenient it is.”
Gonzalez said that as of Dec. 8 they had collected about 80 donated toys, on par with this time last year. But last year’s total was skewed, she said, because on the last day, the North Brunswick High School’s DECA club donated more than 150 stuffed animals.
“So other than that, we’re about the same as last year, but definitely more than our first year.”
Donated toys are taken to a central processing area and then distributed to needy children in the area, Gonzalez said.
“The toys stay local, they go to kids in the community,” she said.
Somerset Family Physical Therapy will collect the toys through the end of business on Dec. 11, Gonzalez said. The practice will be open until about noon on Dec. 9, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Dec. 11.
