Toys for Tots.....Western Massachusetts Location

Franklin County Toys For Tots Drop Off Location Website

Marine Toys for Tots Main Website

It's important to remember around the holidays, while we are picking out presents for our family, planning what to bring for the big dinner, making plans with relatives that live out of state that there are a lot of people out there that can't even get together with loved ones. 




No pile of cards to open from aunts, uncles, cousins and more stuffed with $20, $50, and $100's. No waking up to the living room so full of presents they have to open them from 6am to 1pm and take a break to try out the new 4 wheeler. Maybe just happy with finding the cookies and milk gone filled with the thought that Santa must've loved them because they got a jacket finally so they can play outside during recess. 




We all are finding ourselves in a tough spot sometimes but sometimes we should just sit and reflect on just how lucky we are; whether it's parents, siblings, grandparents or kids, spending holidays with family is the most important thing and there is ALWAYS someone out there suffering much more then we are....at least more then anyone who has access to a computer and internet so they can read this....

just my thinking at least....

http://www.sendacallfromsanta.com/

I first noticed this being mentioned in a few posts in my google + stream but didn't pay much attention. I ended up reading an article about it on TheNextWeb.com http://tnw.to/1CK7a . I ended up reading the first part of it and then just clicking on the link so I could send one to my girlfriend because I wanted to play a little joke. The really neat part is that you get to type in what phone number to call it from(i.e. you enter whatever number you want to show up on the persons caller id)That's the fun part, then you answer all these little questions and they create the call using the details you choose in your answers....at the end you can choose to place the call or send a video instead to an email.(The video was a feature that google added later, very creative I think.)


I really like the idea of this and applaud google for their creation. The only thing that I didn't like but probably was a preemptive move by google for people making prank calls to strangers is the restriction of calls beyond a certain time. I believe it was 8pm central. I know that I was unable to do it as of 9pm in the Eastern Time Zone. I think it's a good idea to limit calling hours because obviously it's def going to be abused by some kids i'd assume, or put a limit per day on calls per IP address to 2 or 3 maybe. No one needs to be sending anymore then that, even if they had 5 kids they'd be able to do 3 first day and 2 next.


Overall, great idea and I think it's been well received throughout, at least I haven't heard of anyone complaining. And if it turns out that there is a large number of complaints due to prank calls google posting warning that they will be turning over the names of fraudulent users.