Covelli Presents $15K Check to Toys for Tots Campaign

WARREN, Ohio – The U.S. Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties campaign provides the service branch an opportunity to show a different face to the community, members of the corps say.

Sgt. Alexis Ayala Valentin and Cpl. Hayli McKenzie participated in a check presentation ceremony Friday morning at Panera Bread. Covelli Enterprises, which operates Panera Bread restaurants in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, presented a check for $15,000 and $1,000 worth of toys to the two marines.

Ayala Valentin says the campaign is personal to him because it not only helps fill a community need that no one else is meeting but also shows the corps is providing a helping hand to the community. “It gives me even more of a reason to try even harder to fulfill that mission of ours,” he says.

People tend to identify the corps with terms like “headstrong” and “jarhead” and associate members with the movie “Full Metal Jacket,” McKenzie says. Initiatives like Toys for Tots bring out the “sensitive, softer, warm side” of the corps.

“I feel like the community appreciates that because they know that they can come to us not only when they’re in trouble, but when they need something like toys,” she adds.

“The partnership with Toys for Tots has been a long-standing tradition for our company,” Sam Covelli, owner and operator of Covelli Enterprises, said in a news release distributed at the event. “We have a commitment to give back to the Mahoning Valley community, especially less fortunate children and families during the holiday season.”

This is the 40th year that Covelli Enterprises has collaborated with the Marine Corps on the campaign, which is the company’s favorite initiative, according to Allen Ryan, director of corporate affairs for Covelli Enterprises. Over the years, the company has donated more than $675,000 to Toys for Tots.

“We’re just very happy to be able to help kids, especially now with inflation and all the things that are going on in the economy,” Ryan says. “There’s a real need out there, and we’re just happy to fulfill it in some way.”

This year’s local campaign has collected some 29,000 toys and just over $17,000 in financial contributions, including the Covelli Enterprises donation, Ayala Valentin says. Toy collection is on par with last year, but he would like to exceed last year’s total.  

He also acknowledges demand is up this year.

“We have received a lot more requests for toys from nonprofits, churches and schools,” he reports. There also is a lack of toys for newborns to age 2 and ages 10 and up.  

“The money is going to do everything in its power for us, especially with the 10- to 13- and 13- to 17-year-old age groups,” McKenzie says.

Though the Marines already have collected from the designated distribution points, additional toy donations can be made at the corps’ warehouse in the Austintown Plaza.

Pictured at top: Cpl. Hayli McKenzie, Allen Ryan and Sgt. Alexis Ayala Valentin.

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