Santa Barbara County is collecting Toys for Tots, and dropoff boxes can be found in the lobby of the County Administration Building, 105 E Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, as well as at Santa Barbara County fire stations.
County employees and community members are encouraged to drop off new unwrapped toys in the boxes between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., seven days a week. The boxes will be picked up on Dec. 15.
All toys collected through the Toys for Tots campaign will stay in the community and will be distributed to low-income needy children through the Unity Shoppe.
Santa Barbara County Supervisors will be topping off the box at the Dec. 13 Board of Supervisors meeting in Santa Barbara.
Toys for Tots began in 1947, when then-Maj. Bill Hendricks, USMCR, and a group of Marine reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign.
For more about the county of Santa Barbara, visit www.countyofsb.org.