A mountain of toys: Quincy restaurant patrons raise nearly $50K in gifts for kids

QUINCY, Mass. — One of the biggest fundraisers for Toys for Tots of New England happened at a Quincy pub.

Cagney’s Pub raised nearly $50,000 worth of toys, which, in case you’re wondering, is an actual mountain of toys.

The room filled to the brim with toys piled high to the ceiling after Quincy residents came together to make the Christmas miracle happen.

“So the money has actually been rolling in way more than we anticipated this year, it’s a little bit overwhelming,” said Mike Dibona, the pub’s owner.

Dibona calls this a holiday tradition. He’s been raising thousands of dollars every year to bring thousands of toys to local kids in need through the Toys for Tots organization.

“It started out as an employee-only project just with the staff coming in for our own Christmas party then with the staff it grew even more and next year even more and now we’re at the point we’re hoping to donate $50,000 worth of toys this year,” said Dibona.

Since then, it’s become an event everyone looks forward to in December. The bar brings in hundreds of people, all with toys in hand and ready to participate in something great.

The charitable cause has been running for 15 years.

“I think when you look at just this and everything else, it’s so amazing,” said Kris Savage. “Just kind of a small group of people can do, you can find community anywhere.”

Savage is one of the volunteers who gets to use the money donated to buy the toys. As a teacher, she knows exactly what types of things will bring joy to the little ones.

“As somebody who works with kids, it’s amazing, I’ve seen kids on the receiving end,” said Savage. “I had a little girl one year who said, ‘I didn’t believe in Santa but now I do.’ It’s like cry-inducing kind of stuff.”

The toy-filled room will eventually clear out once the toys are donated and the toys fill up the hearts of the kids who get to enjoy Christmas like any other child.

“This lady came up to us and said, ‘Thank you, I’m a foster parent and I just got my toys for tots drop off you guys are great,'” said Savage. “It’s just an amazing day just to go and do all of this.”

To deliver the toys, a team of Marines will be at Cagney’s tomorrow morning to pick up all the toys and eventually distribute them to local families in the greater Boston area.

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