'It's very special': Parks and Recreation Department and city athletes donate toys to Toys For Tots

When you ask Joseph Martinez about the most memorable toy he ever got for Christmas, his answer will be as sudden as the smile on his face.

“It was this build-your-own scientist kit, and it came with this (slime),” he explained. “I remember that toy very well. I played with that slime all night.”

Martinez was 8 when he received that toy, courtesy of Toys for Tots.

Growing up in a low-income family, he was raised by his mother, Chastity. Martinez recalled his mom struggling that year to come up with the money to buy toys for him and his younger brother, Zackariah. Then she came across a group of U.S. Marines in front of a Walmart promoting Toys for Tots. She registered her two sons on the spot and received toys for each.

While Martinez can’t remember what toy his brother received, he does remember the smile on his face as they played together that night.

That experience is what made Thursday afternoon a full-circle moment for Martinez, now 23 and an E3 lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, as he found himself standing at the Los Altos Softball Field Complex in front of stacks of toys ready to be donated to Toys for Tots.

“It’s very special to know I could give back in the same way I was given back to before,” he said.

Wearing his formal dress blues uniform, Martinez collected more than 900 donated toys from the city of Albuquerque’s Parks and Recreation Department on behalf of Toys for Tots.

Throughout November, the Parks and Recreation Department partnered with various sports organizations and tournaments to collect the gifts and monetary donations for Toys for Tots. Instead of paying entry fees, participants in softball, pickleball, tennis and disc golf tournaments paid with a toy or a monetary donation.

“We’re giving our athletes a chance to channel their love of their sport into care and compassion for others in the community,” Parks and Recreation Director Dave Simon said.

It’s the second year the department has held this toy drive with local athletes. They collected 520 toys, 13 bikes and $2,500 in donations in their first year. This year, they almost doubled the number of toys, receiving 920. They also increased the number of bikes from 13 to 23 and collected $1,725 in funding.

Nicholas Romero, a recreation services program supervisor with Parks and Rec, helped organize the tennis and disc golf tournament for the toy drive and even counted and stacked all of the toys ahead of Thursday’s handoff with Toys for Tots.

“It was a lot of work, but it’s so worth it to see the number (of toys) we have and that we’re going to bring these into our community,” he said.

The Parks and Recreation Department estimates that all donated toys and money from this drive will benefit more than 1,800 families.

“I’m incredibly grateful for our community,” Simon said. “When I see this great mountain of toys, I see a mountain of relationships and partnerships that make great things possible.”