Leighton Tuttle, left, and Tyler Regan are running a toy drive for Grandma's House and Bethlehem Inn.

Leighton Tuttle wants to care for the Central Oregon community. To accomplish that goal, he set up the Central Oregon Toy Drive to benefit kids at Bethlehem Inn and Grandma’s House, two local nonprofit shelters.

Tuttle, a 29-year-old substitute teacher from Bend, came up with the idea in October, and the drive kicked off last month. He brought in his friend Tyler Regan, also of Bend, to help.

“I figured it was time to pull that idea off the shelf and really give it a shot,” he said. “I really liked what Grandma’s House and Bethlehem Inn were doing, these family shelters that try to move people into more stable housing and kind of streamline the process and offer a lot of awesome services, and I wanted to find a way to support that.”

Bethlehem Inn is a homeless shelter for families in Bend. Grandma’s House is a shelter for pregnant and parenting youth operated by J Bar J Youth Services in Bend.

Surpassing original goal

Tuttle started out asking his friends and family, and had an “outlandish” goal of 40 toys, as he put it. A little over a month in, the drive has surpassed 80 toys.

“Since I was talking to both Bethlehem Inn and Grandma’s House, I know the age groups of the kids that are in there, and so I figured that’s kind of the challenge of a toy drive,” said Tuttle.

He created an Amazon registry for those who want to help but don’t have time to purchase and deliver a toy in person. The toys listed also reflect the shelters’ needs.

Regan, 31, who helps host musical events in Bend and works in therapeutic recreation for Bend Park & Recreation District, offered a space to set up a event booth to spread the word. He watched Tuttle chat with people and thought of bringing both events together.

“And that was the inception of the benefit concert at least; all right, how do we make this a bit bigger and engaging for the community and also fun?” Regan said. “I’ve been playing music for years; I know a lot of musicians around town; I bet I could figure this out.”

Bringing joy throughout December

Tuttle and Regan will host a benefit concert 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, at Silver Moon Brewery. Admission requires donation of a toy, and Tuttle and Regan are trying to collect as many as they can. There haven’t been any monetary donations throughout the drive.

“I think I’ve really driven the point home about this community and how excited people are to get involved in things,” said Tuttle. “The whole toy drive’s budget is zero…The whole community has really come together in every little way that we needed help.”

Bend toy store Leaping Lizards donated $50 worth of toys and is also offering discounts for purchases if it is for the Central Oregon Toy Drive. Bend’s Premier Printing Solutions donated 150 of the flyers Tuttle created. People have volunteered to put wristbands on attendees and collect toys at the door.

Big Story Books, in Bend, has a donation bin in-store for the toy drive, and a receipt indicating you’ve donated can serve as a ticket into the benefit concert.

“It seems like the want to do things in this community is so strong, but maybe knowing what to do is the hard part,” Tuttle said. “It seems like as soon as people are presented with ‘hey, here’s a cool thing’ that they jump on it and they’re excited to get involved.”

Tuttle and Regan have done a lot of their own canvassing, going around to hang flyers in local businesses. They’ve had several people who live outside the region ask how to get involved or send toys. People have appreciated knowing exactly where their donations are going, Tuttle said.

“It’s never really been about the numbers. It’s fun and it’s rewarding,” said Regan. “We started in October, and it’s just been this month of insistent joy.”

Tuttle and Regan are interested in starting another project in the new year, but aren’t quite sure what they would do yet.

“We get the best gift of all, and that’s to see humanity working at its absolute best every single day,” said Regan. “No one’s getting anything out of the deal other than doing the right thing.”

The drive ends Dec. 25.

The Central Oregon Toy Drive is one of many local toy drives this holiday season. The Marine Corps Reserve hosts the Toys for Tots drive each year, collecting toys for thousands of Central Oregon children. Les Schwab Tire Centers collects toys. Bend Fire & Rescue has its Santa Express toy, food and clothing drive through Dec. 13.

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