To the editor:

Outstanding community support enabled Toys for Tots to provide over 5,000 toys to over 1,000 children in the four county area. In addition to the hundreds of individuals who dropped off toys in our donation boxes throughout the community, the following organizations were major supporters of this year’s campaign:

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Zion Lutheran Church in Skanee, CertainTeed Corp, Pizza Hut, Copper Country Mall, Calumet High School ROTC, Houghton High School Student Council, Hancock High School Student Council;

Portage Health Systems, Joey’s Seafood and Grill and Book World in Houghton, Auto Value in Calumet and Houghton, the Registrar’s Office, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, Second Floor Students in Wadsworth Hall, Chemistry/Chemical Engineering, College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and the Keweenaw Research Center at MTU;

U-Haul Self Storage, Gloria Dei Church in Hancock, Houghton County Bar Association, WalMart and Shopko in Houghton, Shopko Hometown in Calumet and L’Anse, Harvest Country Market and Merritt’s Travel Center in Mass City;

Rousseau Bar, United Methodist Church and Pat’s Auto & Sports in Greenland, St. Vincent DePaul Store, Ace Hardware, United Methodist Church and Pat’s Foods employees in Ontonagon, Ontonagon County Telephone, Rockland Depot, Settler’s Credit Union and Settler’s Co-op in Bruce Crossing, Ewen Bldg Supply, Borseth Agency, and Big Valley Ford in Ewen, Antonio’s Restaurant and Lake Gobegic Outpost in Bergland.

The Michigan Department of Human Services in Houghton and Baraga, and the Saint Nicholas Project in Ontonagon were major cooperators who helped with the distribution of toys within the communities. This was the eighteenth year that the Keweenaw Detachment No. 1016 has conducted a Toys for Tots Campaign. We were one of over 800 campaigns throughout the country this year. Toys for Tots distributes approximately 17 million toys to over 7 million children annually.

James Mattson

Laurium