Oklahoma Teen Collects and Gives Away 54,000 Toys to Children

Reed Marcum was just a kid when he learned that some children in his town of McAlester Oklahoma didn’t have any toys under their Christmas tree.

A shy kid who was bullied in school named Reed remembered the moment very clearly, since he was no stranger to feeling left out. His parents divorced when he was just 7, so the thought that his fifth-grade friend would find nothing under the tree was tough to hear.

He proposed to his mother to hold a toy drive, similar in structure to a backpack drive they had organized the year before. Reed’s mother, Angie Miller, posted a video on Facebook explaining her son’s intentions, and asked for donations of toys or money to buy toys for a giveaway.

10,000 toys are slated to be handed out in this year’s giveaway. Each kid also receives a pair of socks, underwear, trousers, a shirt, gloves, and a hat.

54,000 toys have so far been given out to kids in McAlester, which unfortunately has a poverty rate of 24% according to international statistics.