Menlo Park Fire and Police Explorers holiday collection is a success
On Sunday, December 16, 2012, Explorers from the Menlo Park Police Department, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, and the Peninsula Law Enforcement Explorer Youth Association participated in a donation drive in Menlo Park collecting donations for Toys for Tots, Second Harvest Food Bank and One Warm Coat.
The Explorers contacted 467 houses in Menlo, collecting three 32-gallon bins of coats for One Warm Coat, an 8-foot long truck bed full of toys for Toys for Tots, which provided 75 families with gifts for their children on Christmas Day, and 390 pounds of food for Second Harvest Food Bank.
The Explorers also collected $151 in cash, which was given to the Menlo Park Fire Fighter’s Association to purchase gift cards for the children for Toys for Tots, and five bags of clothes, which were donated to St. Anthony’s Church.
The Menlo Park Police Explorers will continue to accept coat donations throughout December and January with a collection drop off bin located in the Menlo Park Police Department lobby. They will be accepting new or “gently” used coats. The One Warm Coat donation bin will be in the police department lobby until January 31, 2013.
The Fire and Police Explorer Programs are a division of the Boy Scouts of America, Learning for Life. It is a volunteer program for youth between the ages of 14-21 years of age who want to learn about a career in Law Enforcement or Fire Service. The Explorers have been fortunate to be a part of a volunteer program that works closely with the community. They were able to help those less fortunate than them have a better holiday season this year and appreciated all the donations they collected.
