This past weekend, the San Jose Location had nearly 100 elves descend upon Blach Construction's makeshift toy shop and wrap 1,650 new toys and gifts in three hours! There were so many Knights, Dames, Auxiliary Members, and volunteers that Tony Mirenda, KM who organize the event needed to create five additional wrapping stations.
Crucial to the success of this tremendous event was the incredible number of volunteers and students that participated through the San Jose Rotary Club. It was inspiring to see so many people from different backgrounds come together to help those in need around San Jose.
Altogether, the Order of Malta Western Association will have 3,873 toys ready for distribution to needy families and children later this month at Martha's Kitchen. The San Jose Location is also working on creating another toy wrapping and distribution event in collaboration with Toys for Tots in the coming weeks.
The Western Association would like to extend a big thank you to Mike Blach, KM and everyone at Blach Construction for giving our San Jose Location access to their wonderful facility and assistance in set-up, moving stuff around, and getting the wrapped toys over to Martha's Kitchen. Finally, a BIG thank you to those that contributed to our effort in purchasing these new toys, ESPECIALLY our anonymous matching donor providing a matching $10,000!
Through the generosity and efforts of so many great people, needy families in the San Jose area this Christmas will be blessed with toys!