I am very happy to talk to Pete Wasselchuk, president of Tech's Reynolds Toys for
Tots here in Racine because we're going to talk about Christmas toys for kids.
And I love this topic and a Pete before you begin, how many times a week do you have
to spell your name for someone?
Virtually every time, so you A.F. is in Sam and from there on, oh, yeah.
Yeah, Wasselchuk.
Okay.
Now, before we begin to, I want to differentiate Toys for Tots.
Now, there are two big ones, Tech's Reynolds Toys for Tots, which you represent, you're
the president of, and then there's the Marine Corps as Toys for Tots to totally different,
right?
Right.
We've been doing this since 1929, the Marine Corps started about in the late 40s, but yeah,
we are Tech's Reynolds Toys for Tots.
The guy who dissued and discovered, the guy who invented some toys passed away last
night at the age of 99, rock him, sock him, robots, and light bright with two of his toys
that he developed personally.
He came up with the idea for them.
I think everybody growing up in the 60s had light bright, even my daughter in the 80s
when she was a little kid had light bright, and of course, rock him, sock him, robots.
We remember those toys.
I guarantee you, we have both.
He just passed away dates 99.
They had a list of all the toys, those are the two I remember, but this guy invented so
many toys during his 99 years, and what a, I mean, without him, would we ever have
rock him, sock him, robots?
Do you remember those things?
He used to, he had two players, he had a plastic, and he had to knock the other guys head
up with rock him, sock him, robots.
I totally do have both of those.
Do you really?
Whoa, those are collector's items.
Yeah, my daughter had light bright, I used to play with it too.
Okay, toys for tots, now you said you're getting ready now for distribution, right?
Yeah, we started registering in the beginning of October.
We're closed this week, we're setting up the shop for distribution, which will start
next Monday, but we will continue to register for about another week and a half.
We're at nearly 300 families now.
We're hoping for 400 to 450, so yeah, we're right in the middle of it, and we'll be packaging
up for the first 100 families on Monday, and then distributing to those families on Tuesday,
we will repeat that Wednesday and Thursday, and then do it all over again the next week.
Now you're still accepting toy donations at this point?
Oh, sure, we're year round here, we're a fixed at shop, so we'll take toys year round.
Yeah, we'll start up for 2026, the first Tuesday in January.
Now what kind of toys are people donating?
Are they brand new?
Do they need just a couple little repairs?
Because you said you have a repair shop there.
So what kind of toy?
We have woodworkers and painters and electricians and bike mechanics and dowel restores and dowel
house restores, so yeah, we take just about anything, and I've got some pretty talented
volunteers that can fix anything.
That's amazing.
How many toys do you think you're going to distribute this year?
Oh, thousands.
Oh, that's something?
Yeah, it's a main gift, and we have a numerous toys in there.
And then each family can pick a family gift, which could be a bike or a dowel house or
something in that order.
And we give out puzzles and books and games and stuffed animals, so.
You know, when I was tell people, I said, I grew up in a Lieberto beaver type house where
we just had what we had, and we had everything we needed.
I didn't know what the money problems were in the family.
My mother and father didn't tell my brother and I.
We just know every holiday season.
We had toys as little kids.
It was just a wonderful time, but not everybody's got that, and it's hard, if you have it,
it's hard to believe other people don't where they can't even afford a toy for their
kid.
And I know we've got some, we've got some pretty happy people walking out the door.
Yeah.
And you know what?
Every, every kid, I don't say they're spoiled.
Every kid has to have toys in their little, it's just part of growing up.
It's, you know, kids, that's all they know.
They don't know bills and credit card debt and mortgages.
All they know is, what am I getting for Christmas?
That's all they know.
And that's all they should know at age five, six, seven, eight, things like that.
Okay.
So how do people register to get the packages?
Well, they come down to our shop and we're now, for example, next week we'll register
between eight and eleven Monday through Thursday and then Saturday, and they can register
Monday and Tuesday the next week.
But we've been registering three or four days a week since the beginning of October.
So they'll come in down here and register and we'll take their information and they
get to pick a family gift, but everything else is pre-packaged per age and gender.
What's a family gift like?
That would be a bicycle or a dollhouse or a workbench for a little one.
A larger toy, a larger gift.
And the packages of the smaller toys, like whatever, magic eight balls, linkies, things
like that?
Well, there's remote control cars.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our guys are rewire those and we get them working.
And when people come to register, do they need to prove anything or just come by and
just take their word for it?
Well, the one thing they need to do is we only can, we can only afford to do it.
We're seeing counties.
So if you live in up in Milwaukee or North or Kenosha even, so proof of residency, pretty
much, from verification that their kids are their kids and they're guardians, but that's
about it.
Yeah, we had some financial restrictions.
We were about two times the federal poverty rate until last year we decided to do away
with that.
Yeah, it's hard enough to live when you don't have enough funding and you get to start
keeping it.
If you're going to come down here and register for toys, you know, the financial situation
has got to be pretty tough.
That's right.
Okay.
How many people you got working there, by the way, volunteering?
Right now about 70, probably 40 to 45 come into the shop routinely and another 35 or so
will work from home, putting puzzles together or knitting or working on games, things like
that.
Sounds like a pretty satisfying job to do.
Oh, yeah.
I think it's, it's, it's, it's important.
It keeps a lot of people busy.
Now, people are going to say, who's Tex Reynolds?
Who is he?
Tex Reynolds was a colonist and a reporter for the Journal Times.
Back in the early 30s, the Boy Scouts had started to distribute toys in 1929, the Great Depression.
And they were overwhelmed.
So a bunch of guys from the Journal Times, led by Tex Reynolds, got together and started
helping them out.
Well, they simply are, very soon, kind of assumed the role.
And so they were, they were working on the toy distribution.
They formed a group called the Goodfellers, led by Tex Reynolds.
And ultimately, they couldn't afford to purchase all the toys they needed.
So they thought, let's fix toys.
And that's how, and then it kind of broke off.
The Goodfellers were the financial source of the group.
And then there were these fellows all over the city working out of their garages and
fixing toys.
And that's, that's how it started.
And so he really started everything.
Well, this is wonderful.
This is what they call the, the Jewish religion of Mitzvah, which is a good deed.
God's good deed.
He was a good deed doer.
And no, you're a good deed doer too, because you're carrying on the tradition of toys for
tots from Tex Reynolds.
That's excellent.
Serving since 1929, right at the beginning of the Depression, woof.
Yes.
Wow, wow, wow.
My dad was two years old back then.
We have, we don't have any records before 1958 in terms of distribution, but I do have
some numbers through 2024, 49,533 families.
Wow.
128,940 children, since 58.
Yeah, they keep, we keep, they and we have kept pretty good records about our distribution
numbers.
And we moved here into city hall annex in 1974, so we've been here for a long time.
We finally consolidated in 1974.
Everybody was working throughout the community, and it's really nice to have everybody in
one place.
Okay, so if somebody wants to make a donation of toys or cash donation, how do they do
this?
Toy donations, you can bring them down to the shop during our open hours, or you can
bring them to the fire stations, east of the interstate, or the shed at court index.
There's a red shed in the parking lot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, see that down.
We kind of use that shed as a barometer.
When it gets full, we rent a truck and make the, make the rounds and pick up the toys.
And cash, you can, you send them to us at 800 Center Street, City Hall, annex, text
channels, toys for tops.
This is just wonderful.
This, you know what I picture?
I, I know this is not what I look, I picture the elves in a toy shop, I just see it in
the car, two wings with the hammers and they're, they're little red caps and, if you come
down and, and the workshop, it actually looks just like that, little workshop looks just
like that.
Little curly shoes.
Just like that.
Well, this is wonderful and you do a great job and I appreciate it.
The people we're seeing appreciate it and the people who use your service, obviously
appreciate it and all the little kids who don't know where these toys come from.
Someday they'll be grown up and they'll find out where they came from and they'll be
thanking you, your crew, Pete.
Before we go, we, I have to thank some organizations that we, we would not be talking if not for
these organizations.
So I want to really thank the Kiwanis of West Racine, the Racine Community Foundation,
the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation, the Racine Founders Rotary and Roma Lodge.
And there are others, but we couldn't do it without their help.
Well, we can't do it without your help either.
So I do appreciate it, Pete.
Pete Wasslchakus, the president of Tex Reynolds Toys for Cots right here in Racine.