A retired Marine who has run Nassau County’s Toys For Tots program since the 1990s showed up Wednesday to hand out toys to children from Hempstead at Miller’s Ale House in Levittown — one year after a stroke left him battling a speech disorder.
Chuck Kilbride, 73, a USMC Major who enlisted in 1971 and served 27 years, suffered a stroke last October that caused aphasia, a brain disorder that affects the ability to speak, understand, read and write. He did not step back from the drive he has led for more than three decades.
“Altogether, it’s probably been over 2 million [toys],” Kilbride said of his career total handing out gifts to children across Long Island.
County officials honored Kilbride at Wednesday’s event for his decades of work and his refusal to slow down despite his health.
“He [just] wants to make sure all these kids are happy for the holiday season,” said Toys For Tots co-chairman Sean Acosta, who led the tribute. “He wants to make sure he puts a smile on every one of these kids’ faces — he collects the toys — [but] he never takes recognition, and that’s why this year we’re recognizing him.”
Kilbride took over the toy drive almost immediately after retiring from the Marines and has since been inducted into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame for his work recruiting donors, volunteers and local officials to the cause year after year.
After last year’s stroke, some expected him to pull back. He didn’t.
“He is relentless, determined. He doesn’t quit,” said his daughter, retired Army Captain Kate Hiebert, 52. “Toys for Tots became a mechanism for him to coordinate the generosity of everyone else to give to the next generation of kids, and I think also to teach them that there are people who care, and that this is the way you can give.”
Kilbride deflected credit back to the officials and volunteers he’s worked alongside for years. They weren’t having it.
“That’s the Marines,” Acosta said. “He keeps going no matter what.”
