The Gift of Giving

I wish Christmas would just come already so I can finally stop shopping. It seems as though no matter how holiday-ready I think I am, I keep finding new things to buy, or new people to buy things for, right up until the minute the stores close on Christmas Eve. And if I'm not actually shopping, I'm thinking about shopping, usually wondering what to get those people -- and we all have a few of them on our shopping lists -- who have everything and want nothing and give too generously to be overlooked.

This year, a friend offered a possible solution to the perenniel "What to give someone who has everything" dilemma by sending a flock of chickens to Appalachia in a nephew's name. So when an e-mail about the Toys for Tots Literacy Program hit my browser, I already was primed to embrace a gift of giving. And, as a former reading teacher, this one seems like the perfect present.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 44 percent of children in the United States grow up in families facing serious economic struggles. Those families can’t foster a love of reading and learning in their children because they don’t have access to the resources -- including books -- that the children need.

The Toys for Tots Literacy Program, a year-round initiative of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, offers economically disadvantaged children in the United States the chance to break that cycle of poverty and to succeed academically by providing them with direct access to books and educational resources that can enhance their ability to read and communicate effectively.

The UPS Store®, exclusive sponsor of the Toys for Tots Literacy Program, collects monetary donations for the Toys for Tots Foundation throughout the entire year. Every dollar donated places a book in the hands of a poor child in the local community. So this year, instead of wondering what to give that special person who has everything, why not give to Toys for Tots Literacy in his or her name? Give a buck; give a book; give a kid a chance!