Last Saturday morning, biker Bobby McDaniel was walking with a spring in his step. He was a participant in the 2020 poker run for Florida Keys Toys for Tots, and he had just picked up his cards at the starting point for the event in Layton at Florida Boy Bar & Grill.
“I have a three pair to kick it off. It’s the luck of the Irish,” he said laughing and holding up his cards. “I’ve done this five years in a row. I’ve never won. I’m here for the kids, you know. But it’s so much fun.”
When asked if it was nice to do something relatively “normal” after such a tumultuous year, he pumped his fist repeatedly in the air and smiled big. “It’s nice to do something normal, that’s right.”
This year, the Toys for Tots Poker Run, renamed the “Florida Keys Fun Run” due to its smaller incarnation in respect to the pandemic, took place on December 12. That day started out ominously gray and drizzly. But the clouds parted, with skies turning bright blue and sunny, all accompanied by a breeze. Perfect for the 35 riders who showed up that day.
“They were gonna cancel it this year,” said Ken “Sarge” Keidel of the powers-that-be in Monroe County. “I wanted to keep the tradition going.” Sarge is the organizer of the poker run portion of the Florida Keys Toys for Tots charity. “I placed some phone calls and said we’ll keep it small, respecting CDC guidelines. We agreed on 50 participants, social distancing, and keeping the gatherings outside.”
The fundraising for and distribution of toys by the Florida Keys Toys for Tots nonprofit is a mammoth, multilayered, military-like undertaking that occurs in different phases. In 2019, the group distributed 43,226 toys to 17,288 children throughout the Keys. In terms of logistics, there’s the actual ordering of the toys; the solicitation of sponsors for prizes to raise money for the toys; the organizing of the fundraising events such as the poker run to buy more toys; the physical delivery in trucks throughout the Keys of the toys; and on, and on, and on…
The brains behind this year’s Florida Keys Toys for Tots? GySgt. Lou “Gunny” Slagle USMC (Ret); graphic designer and biker Kim Bouchard; and Kim Stevenson, a Village of Islamorada plumbing inspector.
Gunny sees his years in the military and his time with Toys for Tots as inextricably linked: a way to serve. “I spent 24 years in the Marine Corps. I’ve been doing Toys for Tots for 15 years here in Florida. Just doing a job,” he said. He explained that the national Toys for Tots non-profit was created at the behest of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1947. Since then, well over 600 million toys have been given to well over 300 million children throughout the country.
In addition to attending fundraising events such as the Fun Run, Gunny and a few select Marines attend toy-distribution parties. “We personally hand deliver it. People say, ‘Gunny, if it wasn’t for you, some kids wouldn’t have toys.’ I tell people all the time that all it takes is one toy to make a child know someone cares and the Marines care. That’s what it’s all about. When am I gonna stop? When they close the cover on my Marine Corps casket.”
Bouchard took over organizing the Florida Keys Toys for Tots in 2016. “I ride a motorcycle. I wanted to make the poker run grow,” she said. “That’s been our primary fundraiser.” Last year, before Covid, they had 300 riders.
“This year, we have over 500 families registered to receive toys,” she explained. “Monroe County Fire helps facilitate distribution. We’ll call families up and down the Keys, and they will go to their local fire department and to pick up their toys. It’s a huge amount of logistics.”
But Bouchard also pointed out the huge gratification of watching a child receive a toy. “At Sugarloaf School, they had us go there for a party. We saw the kids pick toys. That’s the neat part,” she remembered. “With this pandemic, when families fill out their [toy request] form, they have a space to write a special request. But they are not asking for specific things. They are saying they are grateful for this resource, to help with their burdens: ‘I lost my job this year.’ It’s really touching reading this stuff, knowing you can help.”
On December 12, the bikers at the Fun Run also felt good about knowing that part of the $20 admission fee was going to help local children. “It’s for a good cause,” replied rider Eddie Hughes, when asked why he was attending the event.
This year, the riders picked cards for their poker hand at three stops: the Florida Boy Grill at MM 69, the Blue Marlin Jewelry courtyard at MM 81, and the Ocean View Inn & Sports Pub at MM 84. The riders with the best hands got to pick from donated gifts at a party at the OV; one worst hand received the leftover gift.
At Blue Marlin, the participants all milled together outside wearing masks: a local Young Marine Unit in fatigues; medaled Marines in dress blues; Toys for Tots volunteers; the uniformed Monroe County Sheriff police escorts; and, last but not least, leather- and fringe-clad tattooed bikers. The riders held plastic cups of beer, exchanged high fives, and discussed the latest customization of their Harleys while a jazz guitarist performed in the background.
Blue Marlin Jewelry owner Armando Gonzalez took in the colorful gathering and explained why he supports Toys for Tots. “It’s what we do as a community for each other. You donate anything you can. I remember being a kid, poor, and a knock came to my door and a little angel gave me a bag of presents. And I never saw her again. Kids are kids, and I believe in Santa Claus.”
Bouchard would welcome more volunteers to physically distribute the toys next year, especially in Key West and Marathon. Interested readers should email
key.west.fl@toysfortots.org.
