GREENFIELD — This Christmas was Richard Jefford’s last as coordinator of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program campaign in Greenfield.
After about 15 years, he’s stepping down.
The program collects new toys in October, November and December of each year and distributes them as Christmas gifts to children in need in the community in which they’re collected.
As coordinator, Jefford led efforts in Greenfield that included preparing finances, buying toys, arranging sites for collection boxes, monitoring collection boxes, collecting the boxes and sorting toys by age and gender before taking them to a point of distribution.
“Like everyone does, I like kids,” he said of his desire to lead the local campaign.
That’s what kept him coming back year after year, too.
“The more I did it, the more I saw the need for it,” he said.
Jefford said he’s grateful for those who have worked alongside him over the years.
“I had a great group of people helping,” he said. “There’s an unrealistic expectation I’m the person that did it all. I didn’t. I had a wonderful team of people, and we each had a responsibility.”
They and the community made his responsibilities easy over the years, he continued.
“Hancock County is a really generous place to live,” Jefford said. “When we had financial needs, it just seemed like someone stepped up and said, ‘Would you come to our organization and explain what you’re doing?’ And the needs were met.”
Jefford also started Toys for Tots programs in Rush and Shelby counties before handing them off.
He’s stepping down because of health issues and hopes someone will step up to replace him.
According to the latest data from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program website, the Greenfield campaign distributed 2,189 toys and supported 125 children in 2018.
Christy Harpold, who volunteered in Jefford’s Greenfield campaign for close to a decade, said he leaves big boots to fill.
“He has such a heart for kids and Christmas and ensuring that kids have something under the tree,” she said. “That passion just drives him.”
It’s not the demeanor one always expects from someone with a military background like Jefford’s, Harpold said. He served as a U.S. Navy corpsman with Marines during the Vietnam War.
“He looks like this tough guy on the outside, but he certainly has the heart of a kid on the inside,” Harpold said.
It’s still 10 more months before Toys for Tots collections begin again, and Harpold hopes someone steps up to replace Jefford too so that Greenfield’s campaign can continue going strong.
“I’m hoping somebody in the community or somebody with a connection to a Marine will want to come forward and work with us,” she said.
