Santa Barbara County is collecting Toys for Tots, and county employees and the public and drop off new unwrapped toys in the designated dropboxes.

All toys collected through the Toys for Tots campaign will stay in the local community and distributed to low-income needy children through the Unity Shoppe.

Dropboxes can be found in the following locations:

Lobby of the County Administration Building, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara.

Lobby of the Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria.

Santa Barbara County fire stations. (Toys can be dropped off 9 a.m.-5 p.m., seven days a week.)

The boxes will be picked up on Dec. 19.

Santa Barbara County Supervisors will be presenting toys for the campaign at the Board of Supervisors meeting, Dec. 3 in Santa Maria.

Toys for Tots began in 1947, when Major Bill Hendricks, US Marine Corps Reserve, and a group of Marine reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children.

The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign.

For more information on Toys for Tots, visit Home – Toys for Tots