Each year, Boeing South Carolina teammates donate thousands of toys to the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots toy drive. All the toys are collected for a month prior to Christmas, and they are distributed to children in the Charleston area on Christmas Day.
BSC Teammate Bill Coats has been the coordinator of the drive for many years–for a reason.
“When I grew up my mom raised three kids on her own…We had very bare minimum,” Coats said.
“So, when Christmas came around, if we got something under the tree, we were really lucky,” he said.
A couple of years, though, Coats said his mom could not afford presents.
“I watched my mom cry because she couldn’t give us the Christmas that she thought we deserved, and she wanted to give us. The feeling that I got from that, and the pain that I felt from that is something that I don’t want other children to feel.
Now, Coats says he’s fortunate to have a pool of thousands of teammates to assist with his goal of provided a merry Christmas to children across the Lowcountry.
Learn more about Coats’ story in this video: