For the next 30 days — every day until Christmas Eve — Patch will bring you great ways to help spread holiday cheer past your front porch and help people and organizations across the area. There are hundreds of supportive nonprofits in Oakland County with heartwarming missions; we hope one — or several — will strike a chord with Patch readers.

Donate toys to children

While participating in Black Friday shopping, or making some local purchases at the independent stores to support Small Business Saturday, consider adding goodies for the Toys for Tots program to your shopping list.

Every year the Toys for Tots program strives to collect thousands of new, unwrapped toys to distribute to needy kids. There are a variety of drop-off locations for Toys for Tots throughout Oakland County. Toys can be anything from Barbie dolls, to puzzles, board games, toy cars and more.

According to one of Oakland County’s Toys for Tots community organizers, Rebecca Yarbrough, the goal is "to make sure that every kid gets a toy."

Throughout Oakland County the following places will serve as drop-off locations:

• ACO Hardware (closest 619 S Adams Rd. in Birmingham)
• Family Dollar (closest at 27131 Greenfield Rd. in Southfield)
• Art Van Furniture (closest at 32301 Woodward Ave. in Royal Oak)
• Gardner-White Furniture (closest at 4400 East 14 Mile Rd. in Warren)
• The Suburban Collection (closest at 1707 Northwood Dr. in Troy)
• Big Lots (closest at 29712 Southfield Rd. in Southfield)
• Toys“R”Us (closest at 412 West 14 Mile Rd. in Troy)
• Babies“R”Us (closest at 32700 John R. Rd. in Madison Heights)

Collection bins will be set up through mid-December. For more information visit www.toysfortots.org.  

Do you have a cause you'd like us to write about? Please let us know in comments or email me at Laura.Houser@patch.com.