Fort Sill brings back Toys for Kids

Fort Sill’s annual Toys For Kids is in full swing from now until Friday at the Fort Sill Conference Center.

Soldiers from all walks of life can “shop” for toys for ages newborn to 18, as long as they’re still in school. It doesn’t matter if they are Army, Marines or Air Force, if they are service members on Fort Sill, they can participate. Soldiers can shop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Thursday, and 9 a.m. until noon Friday.

Ethan Briner, Family & MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Special Events Coordinator at Fort Sill, said soldiers are nominated by their command and can get gifts due to their hardships.

“You don’t know what a person’s true hardship is,” Briner said. “You could have an E78 that might have three marriages and have six kids in those marriages, paying alimony all over the place, who barely can afford their rent but want to make sure their kids are taken care of. They can go to ACS and work on their budgeting and stuff, but we’re gonna make sure their kids never know the hardship that they’re going through.”

Soldiers come to their commanders, letting them know how many kids they have, their ages and gender, Briner said. The commanders will send a memo to MWR and volunteers from different entities will donate the gifts. Soldiers will check in, receive tickets for their children, shop for the presents their children want and get the presents wrapped by more volunteers. If they need help finding the right present, volunteers can help with that as well. Every child will get two presents.

There are many cool gifts and toys for the little tykes, including Lego sets, early child development toys, books, puzzles, games and even raffles for bikes.

“All the bikes we get in, on the last day, everyone’s name that’s put in for a bike will draw their name and if it matches with this many bikes, we’ll start matching them up with them and call and say, ‘Hey, your kid just won a metal bike,’” Briner said. “On top of the two gifts they already got, they match that with a third.”

1st Sgt. Tina Memmel of B 3-2 ADA said this is her third time participating in the event for her fellow batteries.

“My first year was in 2021, I was an Alpha Battery 1st Sgt.,” Memmel said. “And I did it in 2022, I was in Charlie Battery. This year, I’m in Bravo Battery. It’s a tradition I’ve been trying to uphold throughout my platoon sergeant and 1st sergeant time. As I’ve climbed up in the ranks, I’ve always taken advantage of this program for my soldiers. I’ve been here at Fort Sill since 2012, so this program has always been a little part of what Fort Sill does. I always took advantage of it every year that I could.”

She loves it nonetheless.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for soldiers to actually kind of take a breather in regard to having a little bit of a financial strain lifted from them,” Memmel said. “I do have a few that are in my range that are struggling right now, they’ve been having a really hard year. I know I can count on this program every single year. As soon as I see the sign up sheet, I’m right on top of it, signing everybody I can up.”

Because her kids are grown, Memmel has been shopping for other soldiers on her behalf.

“Every year, I’ve had somebody deployed,” Memmel said. “Usually every year, I’m shopping for at least one to three soldiers because of some exercise, deployment or school.”

Memmel will deploy to Korea in July of next year, with someone else taking her place as the cool aunt or uncle.

Fort Sill plans on giving away 2,772 gifts for the event, with almost 500 soldiers participating and almost 1,000 kids receiving gifts.