Drop off a toy, drink a Coke, feel good about yourself

Consider this an official reminder: The 2010 Toys for Tots program wraps up this Friday, so if you’d like to embrace the holiday spirit while helping needy kids, there are still a few days left to do it.

To make it as easy and fun as possible, the U.S. Marine Corps’s Toys for Tots representatives will be setting up a jazzy red Hummer near the Union Station Metro entrance on Thursday morning from 7 to 10 a.m., accompanied by the Coca-Cola polar bear.

There will be free Cokes for passers-by even if you don’t drop off a toy. But if getting to a toy store is what’s holding you back, remember that pharmacies and even some larger supermarkets sell all sorts of inexpensive toys. The only thing the program asks is that donated toys be new and unwrapped.

Toy donors will find themselves in the company of first lady Michelle Obama, who plans to deliver some of the gifts from the White House Toys for Tots program to Bolling Air Force Base on Friday.

For more information about the program, visit www.ToysforTots.org.

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