Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep. 60 | Toys For Tots Needs Your Help | Guest: Lieutenant General Pete Osman, USMC (Ret)

Episode Date: December 12, 2018

Toys For Tots Needs Your Help | Guest: Lieutenant General Pete Osman, USMC (Ret) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You ever been part of the drum One of the drum circles? I was living in Florida, they used to have the guys show up on the beach for their drum circles. They'd all show up and thank you. Welcome to it. Chewing the fat.

I now want to just go sit on the beach and be part of a drum circle. That's all I want to do. Welcome to Chewing the Fat. You can follow me on Twitter at Jeff E.M.R.A., Facebook, Jeff Fisher Radio. Instagram, Jeff Fisher Radio. And, of course, anything you do.

Just hashtag it. chewing the fat. That'd be great. Thank you. Appreciate it. You can email me anytime, chewing the fat at the blaze.com. There are plenty of you already in the contest for Elf on a Shelf. So if you want the elf on a shelf, we've got the elf on the shelf giveaways. And now I'm just going to talk off mic here. Will I reach for the elf on the shelf paperwork? Why would I have that in front of me immediately when I started to talk about it? Because it was way over there. It's silly for me to think that I would have it right in front of me. But we're giving it away. You can hashtag Chewing the fat and hashtag scout elf and you're going to have an opportunity to win an elf you can win we've got the dog we've got the videos we've got the music we've got it all just I want to know about the good home that you're going to give the elf and the dog okay we're going to give those away on Friday and we've already got some people in line looking like they want to give the elf the scout elf a good home so If you want to win it, there's still time.

You can just hashtag chewing the fat and hashtag Scout Elf and show me the good home you're going to give to the elf. You keep saying music, just to let everybody know it's not the music. It's the movies for the first Scott Elf movie, then the second movie. Then, did you see the big news? If you point that finger at me again, there's going to be another problem other than just big news. So big news just came out yesterday. So off air, Shonda told us about something big that is happening next year.

The musical. They just announced last night that Elf on the Shelf Musical is traveling across the country. And I'll tell you this right now. They're coming to Dallas, Texas, and me and Jeffrey will be there front and center at the Elf on the Shelf musical. I'm not kidding you, Jeffrey. That'd be fun. We will be there. We will be there.

be there. I'd like to get the, is the elf going to speak or is it just going to be the quiet, you know, the hang in health and the sky. I don't know. I don't know. He has to speak because, you know. I don't think so. No? I don't think the elf speaks. Huh. Plus, that is definitely not a fat guy role. There's no fat guy. No, no. I'm not getting that role. How can you, you know, sit on the shelf? You're going to dent that shelf. Wait, I didn't. That'll be fun, though. That'll be fun. Yeah. So it'd be good. And we can bring them in here, bring their Bucci Buts in here and have the whole damn scout tour group in here. That actually would be fun.

So they are, I mean, Dallas is on the mark? According to them, all the big markets, and I consider Dallas. Oh, yeah, well, the top five, yeah. Yeah, because I just saw another concert, you know, kind of Christmas concert that is traveling, and they just announced that they're traveling across the country, and Dallas was on their top list. Oh, yeah. So I believe if it's not Dallas, it's Fort Worth, but I believe well, the Metroplex. Yes.

They'll be here in the Metroplex. But I believe that Dallas is a major market. I can actually pull off one in Dallas and one in Fort Worth, really. I mean, do two in the Metroplex. We're worth that now. Absolutely. Scout elf people. Hear me?

So for those of you that travel with your support animals, sad news today. Sad news for you. Although I don't know if it's sad news or good news. It's kind of dual news. Delta Airlines announced. that they are going to bar certain support and service animals from flying on board the airplane. They also said that, you know, look, our service animal policy is going to include a ban on emotional support animals on all flights longer than eight hours.

In addition, the new policy includes a ban on all emotional support and service animals less than four months of age, regardless of four. flight duration. Good. Now, I know. You want to say good, but if you need an emotional support animal, if you need an emotional support animal, just

just turn your mic on. Don't travel, Jeff. This is the most annoying thing in the world. If you need a support animal person, raccoon, purse, money wallet, cell phone, computer, you do not travel. I'm so sorry that you're going

through all this stress, but I believe traveling should not be anywhere near the horizon. You should not be traveling if you need an emotional support animal, anything. You should not be trying to just go home, relax, turn on the humidifier, turn on the water sprinklers, turn on the spa music, and Wusa and stay at home until you feel better and then you're all set. I know it was my fault. I told them to turn the mic on. If you need a support animal and you actually need one, all right, if you need one,

wouldn't you need it the most on a flight longer than eight hours? Really? I mean, that's when you need your support the most, right? I mean, it's not the short little junts. You can go without Puffy the Raccoon for a couple of hours. But an eight hour flight, you and Puffy the Raccoon got to be arm and arm. Right? I mean, you have to be.

So that's kind of, I mean, that's why I'm kind of torn. Because if, I mean, I want to say, I want to be on the Chris Cruz side of things. Don't travel. But hop in a car. You and Puffy the raccoon can travel in your car together. But we're in the modern age. Airplanes are the way of travel. We can get to places, zip in, zip out.

But if you actually need Puffy the Raccoon, an eight-hour flight, you'd need Puffy more than you do the two-hour flight. No question. So it's kind of, I don't know that I agree with it. I don't know that I agree with it. Now, I do agree with maybe the young ones. The young ones might not be as supportive as the older ones. When you have, let's say you have the daughter of Puffy, the raccoon, you have Muffy, that Muffy is just a little baby. Muffy might not be as trained and supportive on a flight as Puffy would be.

So, I can kind of agree with that. And of course, this is the animals. If you're a blind person, yes, of course you need an animal to help you out. But that's it. That is the only, yeah, qualify. If you're a blind person, that is the only, I feel like that is the only person that needs an emotional support animal or animal. That's it, a blind person.

Done. I mean, we give them a cane. You get the little red. Yeah, but sometimes, you know, they don't want to train for the cane and they just want to get the dog. I've already in trouble. I've already in trouble.

I don't want to go any farther with the blood. I got it, okay? I got it. You need your guide dogs. I know. I don't want to be blind either. Not everybody, okay, is a daredevil.

Not everybody is daredevil. I know that. I appreciate it. However, I'd like to know that I still haven't had my question answered of why we need the braille on the drive-up ATM. But that doesn't matter to me. That's okay. It's just a question out there hanging looming over the question about blind people. But you, Chris Cruz, I cannot believe you are only giving it to the blind people.

and we're not giving it, there's plenty. We have plenty of support with some friends of this network and others who have had animals as support animals from the military who need that help. Are you telling me that you're not going to be, you're not going to give them special dispensation from the Pope to fly?

No. Because I'm one of those people that could benefit from a emotional support animal. Stop it. So sick of you. and you're, go ahead, I'm sorry. Did that what's my mic on? Yes, it was very odd.

And no, I'm sorry. Veterans, I get it. It's tough, but you do not need to travel. You don't need a support animal. Just talk it out, baby. Just talk it out. You don't need muffin-dipped raccoon. Well, muffie's the little baby.

She's not going to do well for you, but Puffy might. Puffy, you need a raccoon. You don't need Bob, you know, the hedgehog. None of that. You're fine, baby. You're fine. You survive, you're home, welcome home.

Done. I don't know. I've seen several military people who have struggled and they're having their animal with them has helped them dramatically. Absolutely. Yeah. And we had some of them in the network come and sponsor and do all that. And we thank you. Thank you for that.

But you're not getting on the plane. You're not getting on a plane. You're not getting on Chris Cruz Airlines. No, you're not. If I ever decide whether, sorry, blind. Sir, no, sorry. Go to Jeffie's Airlines. He believes in your support airlines.

Yes. Yeah, this one does. This one does not. Fly him. Yes. Wow. You are so mean. Although, I still say, look, I want to be on Chris's side.

I do. But I can see where some people may need. the support of something outside of a blanket? Okay, that's fine. So what animal do you draw the line? No, no, no. What animal do you draw the line? I don't know.

I don't know because... No, you can't do that, though. It's my airline. I could do what I want. If Puffy the raccoon is worthy, then Puffy can fly. See, but here's the problem. Now you can have Puffy the raccoon. You're going to have Bobby the horse.

You're going to have the little guinea pig in there. You have the goldfish. Now you have a zoo flying across the airways Where all these animals Do people need the help? The only animal that should be any kind of emotional support Is it a dog or a cat? Even though I hate cats

But a dog or a cat. A cat? That's it. Cats, you can't do anything with cats. Okay then. Cats are out of the question. Dogs or nothing. Those little mini horses are pretty good.

Jeffie. They are. Have you ever seen the stories on them? I have really good. It's a horse in a plane. I know, but they're little ponies. next thing I know they're going to go to something south with Andrew Heath and it goes sponsored

with them. Horses on the plane. No, they ride the bigger horses at the place. Oh, okay. But I'm saying, like, dogs, and that's it. No snakes, no raccoons, no spiders, ants, you know, goldfish. Come on. What is, what is a goldfish? Yeah, I say lizards. Lizards and lizards. Yeah, they're out.

Okay. You want to go, we'll make the lizards are out. Yeah, you can't do that. lizards and snakes you know no you know no sorry you're not flying here

and don't you can't fly on chrys you can't fly on Jeffies it's over yeah but now is that Muffy or Puffy the raccoon that you have there

because if it's Puffy she goes and Muffy Muffy doesn't go now Muffy's still got to get a little older she doesn't hit she doesn't quite hit the height requirement for raccoons see now we have to have a high requirement

thing on the door when people are boarding and what kind of animal do you have today what if i had a support cockroach because billions of cockroaches are now being farmed in china billions of cockroaches are being farmed in china have they never been to florida they did they did to farm them and flage is there and i you can't tell me that we're just create, we've got cockroach farms. Oh yeah, tent two, tent two is ready to be harvested. I don't want to work on that farm.

But I'll tell you why they're harvesting them or why they're, why they're growing them. Because the damn UN for the past 10 years, little at a time, every year they run little stories of people need to eat bugs for food. There's food shortage on the planet. We're overpopulating the planet. There's a food shortage. Is there? How can there be a food shortage and we have an obesity epidemic worldwide?

How can that be? It can't kid it. No. So they want to keep jamming this thought of us having to eat bugs. It's been at least 10 years. Every year there's a couple stories that come out. You know that bugs are good. We need to start eating bugs.

More people. More people are. accepting of bugs. Cooked, right? These bugs are right. Every year, for the past 10 years, they just keep ramming bugs down our throat or attempting to.

And now, China is farming cockroaches to try to ram them down our throats because, oh man, we're expanding Chinese cities or generating more food waste than they can accommodate. Maybe that's a problem that causes cockroaches. So what they're doing now, instead of killing cockroaches,

we're going to go ahead and feed them our scraps so that we could now eat them. No, thank you. And I don't want anybody trying to get on my plane with their emotional support cockroach, okay? I don't care of it, had wings. The flying ones drive me crazy. And I don't, you know,

those are palmetto bugs, Jeff. I know. In Florida, I remember the first house we moved into hadn't been lived in a while. and we moved in and you get up in the middle of the night and you click on a light in here and I mean I would that was not happening in Jeff Fisher's life I was up man

and you start you open in a cupboard I wonder if they're underneath the I had bug killing people at my house I had bug bombs I had sprays. I've learned everything I could about killing cockroaches. I learned everything I could about killing those little pesky red ants in Florida. And I know that ants take me off of cockroach, but those ants, man, they call these lines.

And did you know? I like to consider myself a red ant expert now. But did you know, like if you kill the line, you know, you got the red art rode up and they're eating, say they love chicken. They love chicken So they If they're lined up on that chicken bone You left on the counter And they're

You can put a microphone up to the ants On the chicken bone They'd all be going So let's say you kill the line The rest of the line in the wall You didn't kill them They just break off They make a new little house

So now you got two lines You got to kill the main line You gotta go back to You gotta kill the head of the snake So then I learned that you could put the boric acid kills the red ants. So if you mix some boric acid with some peanut butter and put it on little paper slabs, the ants will come out and they'll eat the boric acid and the peanut butter and they'll take it back to home with the boric acid will kill them. So it kills a bunch of ants.

However, what happens is if you don't clean around the little paper is what happens is some ants come up to a little paper with the boric acid and the peanut butter and they die. They eat the boric acid. They die right there. They're not strong and healthy. They're not anywhere close to being a support ant. And so when they start dying around the little paper square, the other ants come up and go, whoa, whoa. Something is killing our ants here.

We're not going to go there. So they go around and they start making new little homes. So you got to make sure you keep up on cleaning the area around the boric acid of peanut butter. I have been tortured with these groaches and ants in Florida, man, tortured. And they just come out of nowhere. Somebody drops a piece of chicken on the kitchen counter. And you turn around 18 billion red ants are there. You haven't seen one in a week.

A little piece of chicken. They have come out. Oh, man. But I'll tell you one thing that didn't happen after the first few days of living in my new house. When I turned the light on, I did not hear those roaches were dead. That's why I'm not eating them. I'm not going to eat them. Ever.

United Nations, ever. And now not only do we have the United Nations, third world countries, we all have to eat bugs to survive because we're overpopulating the plant. planet, we've got this, the news out of the UK that has this bleeding burger with zero meat that they created. It looks like, this always killed me about vegetarians. The burger, it looks just like a real burger. Well, they just have a real burger.

Why do you make it look like a real burger if you don't want to eat the burger? So this new bleeding burger with zero meat on the supermarket has all kinds of people all wound up. And now, of course, we have to have a name for everything. You have to be in a group. You can't just be a person that likes meat. You're a carnivore. Vegetables. Vegetarian. Now.

people who are trying to incorporate more plants into their diet and less meat, maybe for health reasons, maybe to cut costs, or perhaps, this is what I like about this story, or perhaps is the realization that globally, we will all have to reduce our meat consumption, given the mammoth environmental crisis we have found ourselves in, shut up. but if you are just trying to incorporate more plants into your diet and less meat,

you are now a flexitarian. So there, welcome to the club. I can't go on reading this story anymore because it's all about climate change and the world and how this is affecting us. And I'm not going to read any more of it because it will make my head explode. And I'm actually in too good a mood today, even though that Delta has banned Puffy, the raccoon, that I have to take with me on flights as my comfort animal, support animal. But now that I know that if I want to incorporate more plants into my diet with less meat,

I'm a flexitarian, I feel better. Oh, no. Amanda. Oh, no. Amanda Teague. from Dragaeda. Do you remember her? She married the Haitian pirate named Jack earlier this year?

Yes, you do. The wedding to her soulmate. The Jack, the ghost, that she met on board a boat in international waters off the Irish coast. You remember. You remember her. You remember Amanda.

Well, apparently the marriage to her soulmate Jack the ghost hasn't turned out well what I know I was rooting for them she said in a social media post

so that she felt it was time to let everyone know that the marriage is over now she didn't explain why she said I'll explain in due course but all she wanted to say is be very careful when dabbling in spirituality. It's not something to mess with. Right?

So that's what happens when you marry a ghost from 300 years ago. And, you know, now the ghost, Jack, who was purportedly executed for thieving on the high seas. in the 1700s. He's had a tough time, and he probably felt pretty good, finally. Finally felt something to feel pretty good about

when Amanda met him and they fell in love. Because most ghosts don't meet regular people, humans and fall in love. They have to, you know, float around with other ghosts. But, sadly, Amanda and Jack,

the ghost aren't together anymore. Marriage just don't last these days. Why is this not happen to me? This never happens to me. Okay, so three employees at a Texas Sonic drive-in

into my state have been arrested because a family discovered illegal drugs in a kid's meal they bought for their four-year-old son. I mean, if one of my kids went, hey, dad.

Now, they're too old for kids' meals now, very disappointingly, but I'll have to order them anyway now. Just in case. But if they would have said over the years, hey, dad, what is this? This isn't my nuggets. And I looked at it, and it was some sort of drug. I would have,

I would have turned it back in 100%. that would have been so darn mad. Now, all they found was one pill. I found one ecstasy pill. So some dumb employee drops his ex in the kid's meal while he's making while he's working. So the three were arrested. The police also found more ecstasy pills on the dancer who was the manager at the fast food restaurant. And they weren't selling.

I mean, they weren't selling. It wasn't like they were going around trying to have the kids drop X. We'll fix it. We'll put X in the kids' meal. They're going to get high. We won't be around to enjoy it or see it or know anything about it, but we want to do that. Duh. But you know they're going to be in big trouble.

You start dropping illegal drugs and kids meals, man. You are. That is not a good sign. But I once again. state as I started. Why doesn't that happen to me? Speaking of parenting, and what you would do as a parent if your kid in the back seat,

open the kid meal and, hey dad, what's this? I don't know. Here, let me have it. In your pocket, it goes. I saw this on Facebook today, and it actually struck me kind of funny.

Some of these things that make the rounds on Facebook are, they're interesting, but some of them are not. This one actually made me kind of remember how things were. And I don't know that if they were good or bad. Let's not say if they were good or bad. Let's just say this is the way it was and the way it is. So this is mom now versus mom's then. They're not saying when then was,

but we're going to assume that then was when you're growing up in the 50s. 60s, maybe even the 70s. Mom, now. That word is inappropriate. Then, say that word again. I'll wash your mouth out with soap. Moms now. Good job trying one bite of the dinner I made.

Now you can have mac and cheese. Moms then, you'll eat what I make whether you like it or not. There are starving children in the world. Thank you. Moms now. I can see her. upset. Take a deep breath and use your words. You better stop crying or I'll really give you something to cry about.

Moms now. You can't walk around the block by yourself. I'll drive you. Text me when you need a ride back. You want to go out, take your bike, be home before dark. I mean, and I'd like to add to that one. Unless someone is bleeding and there's an actual injury, you don't need to come home. I don't see you back here. That's a fact. Today.

I packed your bento box with almond butter on whole grain and kale chips with an organic smoothie. I mean, that does sound like a mom today. Then take a brown bag with a bologna sandwich on Wonderbread, grab a Twinkie and a Hawaiian punch too. Get out. Thank you. Thank you. Now that's a difference between Mom today. and mob then.

So we're coming up on the holidays and we're getting down to crunch time and that means that the award shows have to put out their nominations because of course they have to have their award shows at the first of the year. Today we got the SAG Awards. Don't look at me like that.

It's the Screen Actors Guild Awards. It's not the SAG Awards. Although, you know, maybe we come up the bit, maybe for the be funny, you actually have the SAG Awards. You got a funny grandma. Today's grandma, SAG Awards.

I just have the winners, you know, wheelchair, wheelchair, them out, walker them out. You know what I'm talking about the SAG Awards? No, not the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is the nominations were today, and we'll gotta break that down because I've got some, I've got a few few thoughts on some of the nominations,

but what I'm talking about is a bit for and I'll Blaze TV, Blaze Media, chewing the fat. I get it. Fine. I get it. SAG awards, sagging, SAG, grandmas, old people, lower, get it. Move on. This is what you're going to get

with Chris Cruz Airlines. Don't come back to me. Over to Jeffier and start crying, he's treating me like this. No. I'm telling you right now. when he won't let Puffy the Raccoon or Grandma's Sag winner on the plane, they'll come back to me. They'll come crying to me over here at Jeffier.

I'm going to send you right back to KK.A. Okay? I'm going to send you right back to that. We are coming down to crunch time for presents, though. And we've talked about on this network. You know, we've done a lot of talk about a lot of good doing the Tyler Perry Challenge. and we have done a lot for kids and for parents and for families to help them with their Christmas. Everybody wants to have a nice Christmas, right?

Wait, wait, wait, you're closing on the show? Are you closing the show down now? I'm going to go to the interview. Okay, well, hold on. Before we do that, I want to be a big shout out to your number one fan, seven-year-old Connor King out of Ohio. and he submitted his little letter to get the elf on the shelf. And he explained how he's going to treat the elf on the shelf,

and we see he going to live. So Connor King, we saw your message. We appreciate. And maybe, maybe you get a surprise. Well, we're picking the winner on Friday. Yeah, what I'm saying. We see you. We see you.

We see you. We see you. It was like the scout elf nominations. on today as a nomination for possible scout elf Connor from Ohio Connor seven-year-old Connor big fan going to provide a beautiful home for scout elf look here's Connor's bedroom yes the elf will be up Connor's air conditioning vent

up on the top shelf of the closet yeah thank you Connor I appreciate it thank you and yes you're in the drawing then Right? I mean, he hashtag chewing the fat. He hashtag Scout Elf. He's in the drawing. Coming down to crunch time for a Christmas and for you to be able to help a family and help kids that need some toys at Christmas. And Toys for Tots is always a strong organization. They do wonderful things. They help a lot of families and a lot of children. All right. Well, it is coming up on the Christmas break and Christmas Day. and what's the most important, well, it's not really the most important, but one of the most important things that happens on Christmas is when the children are able to have some toys and gifts under the tree that they can play with on Christmas morning.

And I just read from a release from Toys for Todd's that there are currently more than 15 million children living in the U.S. below the federal poverty line. That is an amazing stat. and joining me is General Pete Osmond from the Toys for Tots. General, thank you for coming on, chewing the fat, with myself, Jeff Fisher. I really appreciate it. And what you guys do with the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is amazing. It's fantastic. And I know you guys are smack dab in the heart of the push.

And people that want to donate for Toys for Tots. I want to talk a little bit about the past and the struggles that you've had. But right now, what can people do to help out? Well, Jeff, first off, thank you very, very much for giving it an opportunity to spend a little time with you and your listeners. And you're right. This is the big push time right now. The best thing people can do is the 11th hour, but if they can get out there very quickly, buy that toy and drop it in one of our barrels.

We'll get it to a less fortunate child for Christmas. If it's not convenient to go out and shop today, then the best thing to do is go to our website, which is Toysford tots.org, and again, that's Toysfor Tots.org. Push the donate button, and we'll walk you through an opportunity to make a donation. We take those donations at this time of year, buy huge amounts of toys in bulk, at greatly reduced prices, and then push them to the campaigns and those areas in the country that need additional support. And we're always able to sort of identify them at this point

because the coordinators are beginning to pull the toys in. They can see where they're missing toys for certain ages, or certain genders, and we can help fill that void. So this is the best way that your listeners can help us today is with that online donation. Over the years, how many people, children, have you helped enjoy Christmas with your Toys for Todd program? It's eyewater.

And the Marine Corps led the Toys for Todd's effort now for over 70 years. And over that 70-year period, we literally have distributed over, if you can believe, this $550 million toys to about $250 million less fortunate children. So it's, you know, it's amazing. And as you mentioned right up front, Jeff, the fact that, you know, we have 15 million children in our country that live below the poverty level. I mean, that's hard to believe in a country that's affluent as the United States that we have that many children that are living in poverty. But we do. So, you know, what do you do? Well, you try to do something about it, and that's what we try to do at Christmas time. Even if it's just, you know, one toy. I know we've had a big push here at Blaze Media

the last few days over the Tyler Perry Glenn Beck Challenge for paying off some of the debt that people had for the layaways at Walmart. But this is another way that you can donate whatever you can. And it helps someone that really, really needs it. And you can feel darn good about it. I mean, you guys have a great foundation. I know that, what is it, 185% of the money that comes in goes to the kids? Just about. I mean, we have probably the most enviable program to support ratio in the nonprofit world. You know, 97 cents out of every dollar goes to the purchase of toys, 3% overhead,

and that really just is fundraising costs. Not one dime we raise goes to pay anybody's salary. So, you know, that kind of resonates with folks who want to do. the charities and, you know, incredibly effective and efficient, and that's the Marine Corps way. So, you know, when someone donates to Toys for Totts, and particularly if you give that toy, you know that that one toy is going to make a difference in some kid's life. And, you know, it goes a long, long way. So how do we know, and plus, how do we know that is there the specific Toys for Tot logo

on the boxes that we know are exactly, that are specifically for Toys for Tot? So we don't have any fraud going on? Exactly, yeah. Our barrels or boxes, as people call them, they've got the toys for Tots logo on them. You know, there is no question that that's a legitimate box and that you can drop your toy in there with absolute assurance that it's going to get to a less fortunate child. And then if that, if you don't feel, if that makes you feel uncomfortable, obviously the website and the donation is the easiest way to go. And you would make sure that, you know, that if you're short on, as you said, which I found fascinating, you're able to tell that we need, you know,

two million girl toys and we only have a million and a half. We need more girl toys. Exactly. Yeah, that's pretty fascinating. Now, if I go out today and I buy, you know, buy a hundred gifts, and I spend my night wrapping those darn gifts up and dropping them off, what's wrong with that problem? Well, the problem is we'd have to unwrap them.

Because without knowing what's in the, beneath the wrapping, We don't know if it goes to a girl or a boy. It doesn't quite work that way. Yes, absolutely. And I say that jokingly, but really, people that are able to donate the actual product should deliver it unwrapped. Exactly. Yeah, it facilitates things in the warehouse when we're sorting them by age and gender. How many people do you have, do you get many presents wrapped?

You know, occasionally. And some small campaigns, you know, in small towns have the luxury of collecting the toys. sorting them by age and gender, and then putting teams of, you know, folks together in the town, and they will wrap the toys and deliver them, because at that point, they know what's in the box, and so they can make that happen. But generally speaking, most people are very, very good about leaving the toys unwrapped, and that way we can do things more effectively and quickly in the warehouses. So how many warehouses do you have set up around the country to handle this?

Because it's got to be overwhelming at this time of year. It is. We have over 800 individual campaigns taking place in big cities and small towns. You know, and some of the campaign sites, they will have several warehouses that they work out of. You know, most campaigns have won. So, you know, probably a reasonable effort. And there's probably about 1,000 warehouses that we're working out of this time of year in order to prepare the toys and get them ready to for delivery to the less fortunate children. If I'm listening and I am a less fortunate person, because, I mean, I'm sure.

sure there are less fortunate people listening to this podcast. How do I go about contacting Toys for Tots and say that, you know, I'm worthy of a toy for my kids? I really want my kids to wake up with a toy. And if Toys for Tots can facilitate that, that would be wonderful. Yeah. The way it works is you go to our website, again, which is Toysfor Tots.org, you know, punch in your state and your county.

And up will pop another website, which is the local website, that has. It has the coordinator's name, contact information, and whatnot. But it also has a document that you can fill out that's kind of like an application for toys for your children. And it asks you the ages and the number of children that got the genders and whatnot so they can do that. And then the local coordinator will process that and take care of it. It is getting late in the campaign, so to be honest with you, some of the coordinators probably have stopped the application process. if I were an individual who needed help and maybe it's beyond the 11th hour, I would still call the coordinator and say, hey, we missed it.

If you could help, I would really appreciate it. And, you know, nine times out of ten, that coordinator will go beyond. Right, of course. I mean, that's what we're doing it for, right? Exactly. I mean, we have coordinators that literally 10 o'clock on Christmas Eve are delivering toys to families that need help. That's fantastic. I have been through that process, not with.

toys for tots, but for another charity. And it is truly amazing how it feels to be able to deliver anything to some of these families. It's absolutely amazing. You guys are, you guys are fantastic. Well, it's a reflection of the American culture. Americans, unbelievably generous in donations, contributions, but also with their time. You know, if they see a real need out there and it's genuine, they will go beyond in order to make sure that good things happen. Okay, so we are at the 11th hour. So it's Toys for Tots, and it's Toysfor Tots.org is the website. And you can go and you can donate and still help some kids, help some families,

have a wonderful Christmas, or you can donate a toy if there are still the Toys for Tots barrels or boxes out there. And if you need help, be sure to go to the website, Toysfor Tots.org. and try to find in your area how to make that happen. That would be wonderful. General, any last words for the 2018 Christmas season from Toys for Todd? You know, for your listeners, I really thank you very, very much for the past support. And we just ask you, if you haven't donated this year, please step up and do so.

We have some really tough demands out there between the wildfires in California, the hurricanes that hit the Gulf and the Atlantic Coast. A lot of families are going to be looking at the 11th hour for help, and that last-minute donation can really help us carry the day. Toysfor-Tots.org. General, thank you very much. I appreciate it. General, Pete Osmond, president and chief executive officer of the Marine for Toys for Tots Foundation. Thank you, sir. Just so much. Thank you so much, and Merry Christmas to you and your team there.

Thank you, sir. Right back at you.