NEW ORLEANS — It was a huge turn out in downtown New Orleans Saturday for the Zulu Toys for Tots. Hundreds lined the sidewalk outside and waited for hours to get toys and bicycles for kids for Christmas. Toys for Tots started with the Marine Corps in the 1940’s and since then has collected over 540 million toys to kids around the country.
It wasn’t until after Hurricane Katrina when Zulu jumped on board. “Right after Katrina in 2006, we noticed that when we got back to the organization, we noticed that a lot of the kids in the neighborhood didn’t have toys. They didn’t have presents they didn’t have a lot of things that children would normally have. A lot of sad faces. So we decided to give this toy drive just to give back to the community but more importantly to put some smiles on children’s faces in our community,” Zulu Historian Clarence Becknell said.