New toys provided for Monroeville fire victims

Santa Claus arrived either eight months early or four months late, depending on your point of view.

Actually, representatives of Allegheny Valley Marine Corps League Detachment 827 and the American Red Cross played the role of St. Nick in delivering toys on April 10.

The gifts were for young victims of the mid-March fire at Cambridge Square Apartments in Monroeville that destroyed three dozen units and left 65 people temporarily without homes.

Detachment 827, based in Springdale, provided a variety of playthings through the Marine Toys for Tots Program, which marked its 75th anniversary last year.

“A lot of people, when they hear of Toys for Tots, they think only of Christmastime. But we’re blessed that we get donations all year around, which then we put in a reserve for Christmas,” Jen Neilen of Arnold, the detachment’s coordinator for the program, said. “Anytime there is a disaster like this and people reach out to us, if we have the toys, we’re going to give them.”

Twenty-three bags containing five brand-new toys each were available for pickup at the Monroeville Municipal Building, where detachment members joined Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter volunteers in sharing the goodwill.

“We’re like the second responder,” volunteer Paul Schmitt of Indiana Township said. “Obviously, the police and fire are the first responders. But we try to handle the victims for the next several days, and then we’ll go beyond.”

In the Cambridge Square fire’s aftermath, the Red Cross assisted displaced residents in finding lodging while working with other organizations to help provide essentials such as clothing, furniture and, most recently, toys.

“The most affected victims are the children,” Schmitt said. “So this helps.”

Red Cross representatives have participated in Toys for Tots efforts, as well.

“They volunteer their time helping us bag toys, so whenever they reach out to us with a disaster like this, we give back to them,” Neilen said.

Marine Toys for Tots benefited from a record amount of generosity in 2022, distributing 24.4 million toys, books and games to 9.9 million children in need.

The Marine Corps League was founded in 1923 by World War I hero John A. Lejeune and is the only federally chartered Corps-related veterans’ organization in the country, following its approval by Congress in 1937.