Toys for Tots distributes more than 56,000 gifts to southern Colorado children

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO ) -- Thanks to the nationwide Toys for Tots program sponsored annually by the Marine Corps Reserve, Christmas will be much brighter for thousands of kids from Pueblo to the New Mexico line.

Vincent Espinoza, Toys for Tots coordinator for southern Colorado, said that 24,000 toys were distributed Friday in Pueblo alone; Pueblo police delivered 2,000 toys to the homes of families who can't afford to buy presents.

"I really wanted to help the neediest families," Espinoza said. "The police said that they had a list that they put together during Thanksgiving, and I said I wanted to make it happen."

Pueblo police posted photos of the happy kids on the department's X page.

Espinoza added that 56,000 toys were delivered to other communities south of Pueblo.

"We gave them out from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.," he explained. "There weren't as many as we gave away during the early years of the pandemic, but there still are a lot of people in need out there."

Toys for Tots started in 1947.