ADVODA Gives Toys to Tots

By Ron Ireland, President, TMC Communications

I attended a great event put on by Denver-based master agency ADVODA last week. Each year, the company sponsors a Toys for Tots event in concert with the U.S. Marines.

One team’s purchases crowd the room.

Founder and owner, Ron Dunworth, solicits support from ADVODA’s suppliers and puts up a good deal of his own money to support Toys for Tots. Suppliers and ADVODA employees were randomly assigned to five separate teams and given a handful of cash, a list, and two hours to go out and buy toys. Upon returning to ADVODA’s offices, each team displayed their purchases and enjoyed dinner and drinks and good-natured ribbing about who did best.

Ron Ireland (center) poses for the camera with ADVODA Partner Hilary Fox and Senior Partner Ron Dunworth.

Representatives from the U.S. Marines served as judges, and cash awards were up for grabs for the top two teams. In the end, it was a five-way tie and all cash prizes were immediately deposited into the Toys for Tots cash jar. More than $4,000 in toys was donated plus a significant amount of cash in the collection jar. Participating suppliers included Integra Telecom, Lightyear Network Solutions, Level 3 Communications, PAETEC, Qwest Communications International Inc. and TMC Communications.

It’s great to see an agency like ADVODA giving back to the community, and TMC was honored to be a part of the event.

Marines deliberate and inspect team purchases.

“Our third annual ADVODA Toys 4 Tots event was a great success. Thanks to our vendors for providing financial support and to everyone – ADVODA employees, vendors and associates – tasked with spending the money,” said Dunworth. “Through their combined efforts we were able to contribute over 400 individual Toys to the Marine Corps Toys 4 Tots campaign. We all had a great time working together to ensure that a large number of needy kids in Colorado will have something under the tree on Christmas morning. These Marines are great. They not only fight for all of our freedoms, but they spend a lot of time taking care of the kids in this country. We will be doing it again next year, only bigger.”