The New York Giants are doing their part to spread cheer during this holiday season.
The team, in partnership with the United States Marine Corps, sponsored their annual Toys for Tots drive during Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium. Fans were asked to bring new, unwrapped toys to collection vehicles and volunteers located at each entrance of the stadium before the game. Uniformed Marine Corps reservists were also on hand to assist in collecting the toys.
Modell’s Sporting Goods donated $2,500 worth of sports equipment and handed out coupons for selected Nike products for anyone who donated a toy.
The gifts collected during Sunday’s game will be donated to Toys For Tots, the premier community action program of the United States Marine Corps. In the last 50 years, the Marines have collected more than 272,000,000 toys for children around the country during the holiday season.
The Giants have sponsored a toy drive since the late 1970s but this isn’t the only way the team has gotten involved.
The team sponsors an annual Jingle Jam at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center. More than 750 local foster children are invited to the team’s training facility for a day that includes music, face painting, clowns, and magicians. Giants players dressed as Santa will give each child a new book bag, toy, winter coat and hat as well as an autograph.
Former Giants players Antonio Pierce and David Tyree were the headliners of the third annual Breakfast With Santa sponsored by Tackle Kids Cancer at Hackensack UMC Fitness & Wellness in Hackensack, New Jersey. Giants fans, many of them dressed in Giants blue, lined up to take pictures with Pierce, Tyree, and Santa. Proceeds from the Breakfast benefited the Children’s Cancer Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Offensive lineman Justin Pugh was on hand at City Hall in Jersey City, New Jersey for a toy drive in which more than 2,000 gifts were distributed to more than 900 families. Children who attended the event had their picture taken with Santa. Pugh signed autographs and posed for pictures.
In a season where everything that can go wrong has gone wrong on the football field, the New York Giants and their players are giving back to their community.
– Curtis Rawls is a Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage and covers the NFL and the New York Giants. Please like and follow on Facebook and Twitter. Curtis can be followed on Twitter @CuRawls203.