EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016.
This was once the first fact of life in Mansfield: any kid who wants a bike should have one.
That is why Toy Time was such an honored and loved undertaking for so many years.
It started in the early 1930s when the economy crashed and the Great Depression set in. There were men in the Mansfield Fire Department who believed strongly that every kid in town deserved a Christmas present even if their parents were flat broke and out of a job.
So the firemen began collecting old toys and fixing them up. It meant a lot and it started a tradition.
This photo from 1934 was taken at Station 2 on North Main Street in November when the firemen were stockpiling toys like Christmas elves of the North End.
In later decades there were similarly inspired programs that were instituted nationally: following World War II there was “Tide of Toys;” and then in the 1950s and 60s it was called “Toys for Tots.”
Ken Cole started the organization in 1967. He called it Toys for Tots. The program was given new roots again, back where it originally began in downtown Mansfield. Later, when Ken died, his daughter Teresa Boner took over the program for a number of years starting in 2009.
By this time it had long been called Toy Time, and it insured the first fact of life for our kids — before it stopped operation around 2018.
The 1934 photo came from Charlie Weaver, whose father was one of the firemen pictured at Twos. Chuck was a lifelong volunteer at Toys for Tots, and then at Toy Time; and his boundless cheer was one of the things that gave Christmas its joy.
Check out background information on Toy Time.
