P.J.’s student brings in over $2,000 worth of Toys for Tots goodies

By Brandi Makuski

“Wow, that’s amazing…I just can’t believe you did all of this.”

The remarks came from Mark Olinyk, owner and CEO of Mark Toyota in Plover on Monday, as he watched Sydney Pfannes and her mother, Anna, haul load after load of brand-new toys into the dealership, placing each under the store’s gigantic tree, with the help of his employees.

It was the scheduled time for the dealership’s annual holiday party, but Olinyk, and his COO, Tim Durigan, wouldn’t leave the store until they’d met with Sydney Pfannes for her sixth consecutive drop-off.

Once she took a break, Olinyk approached her, his hand reaching out for a shake. “You’ve grown so tall,” he said. The last time he’d seen her, the P.J. Jacobs Jr. High student was 12 years old.

Now a sparky 13, Sydney Pfannes said the idea for a Christmas toy drive came to her six years ago, when she was in third grade.

“My mom and my aunt went Black Friday shopping, and when they came home, I took one of their boxes and wrote ‘toy drive’ on it and put it by the tree,” she explained.

Durigan said after visiting the 2017 Safety Fair, an annual affair at the dealership, Sydney Pfannes contacted the store to ask if she could drop off Christmas toys for kids in need, Durigan said.

“It just came out of nowhere,” he added.

Anna Pfannes said that first year, Sydney’s goal was 30 items for the Toys for Tots drive, but she collected 80 from friends, family, and neighbors. But the donation drive grew legs when Anna Pfannes wrote about it in a social media post, and eventually, monetary donations came in from as far away as California.

This year, Anna Pfannes estimated that Sydney managed to bring in over $2,000 in new toys, including $500 from a local women’s club. The family spent the donations over three shopping trips, purchasing new bicycles, games, dolls, trucks, and other new toys for children to unwrap on Christmas morning.

“We had to stop counting because we had so many donations,” Sydney Pfannes said jokingly.

“This is all her work, she did all of this herself,” said Durigan, as he waved his hand towards the dealership’s Christmas tree. “We didn’t ask; this was all her. It’s pretty amazing, especially for a young lady of 13.”

Sydney Pfannes is the daughter of Brian and Anna Pfannes in Stevens Point. She said she plans to become a journalist.

Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve. It distributes toys to children whose parents are stuck in a tough financial spot at Christmas. It was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks