Donate toys for chance at $10K

By JAMES CLARK / Editor for the Southern Standard (McMinnville, Tenn.)

Check Advance mascot Checkers the Dog and employee Rosie Jaco are proud to announce the company’s Toys for Tots program. Anyone who donates a toy until Dec. 15 will be eligible for a $10,000 grand prize and 14 prizes of $1,000. (James Clark photo)

Check Advance figures the best way to encourage holiday toy donations is to offer cash — $10,000 to be exact.

That’s the grand prize available during Check Advance’s Toys for Tots program which runs through Dec. 15. One grand prize of $10,000 will be awarded, along with 14 prizes of $1,000. The 18 Check Advance branches in Tennessee are participating in the giveaway.

To enter, just stop by the Check Advance on Smithville Highway located between Gateway Tire and L&M Flooring. You don’t have to bring a toy to be eligible for the drawing, although toy donations are encouraged.

Locally, the toys will be given to the Warren County Rescue Squad which has a well-established toy drive. The rescue squad has also received a good bit of help the past six years from local bikers who have conducted a toy ride.

“Children are going to be needing these toys at Christmas,” said Check Advance employee Beverly Stonecipher. “We’re here to serve the community and this is one of the ways we’re doing it.”

Check Advance has already collected about a dozen new toys which are currently resting beneath a Christmas tree at the front of the business. Toys for Tots was supposed to start Monday, but store employees say they began accepting toys last week.

“We were just so excited we couldn’t wait,” said Check Advance manager Jennifer Lockridge.

Added Stonecipher, “We want to have this whole lobby full by the time we’re done. We hope it takes them two truckloads to carry it all away.”

Check Advance is asking that only new, unwrapped toys be donated. Monetary donations are also welcome and employees say no amount is too small.