Jackpots of Kindness: Massachusetts State Lottery Collects Toys for Local Kids

The Massachusetts State Lottery is no stranger to games - they've got lots of them! This time of year, they're also getting involved with board games, plushies, sports equipment, and other toys for local kids in need. The Lottery's 10th annual Holiday Toy Drive is underway, and they need your help to make sure it's a fun, joy-filled season for every child in the Commonwealth. Rachel Guerra, Deputy Director of Communications at the Lottery, joins Nichole this week to share all the info.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week. Right here, we come together, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. Wellk, you had a great Thanksgiving
with your loved ones. Thanks so much for tuning in.
I'm Nicole Davis. Games are nothing new, of course, over
at the Massachusetts State Lottery they have many of those,

(00:28):
but this time of year, the Lottery is also focused
on making sure kids all over the state can have
not just games, but plushies and all sorts of other
toys to enjoy for the holidays. This year marks their
tenth annual Holiday Toy Drive. It is underway right now,
but there's not a lot of time to get it done.
Here with all the info on the drive is Rachel Guera.
She is the deputy director of Communications at the Lottery. Rachel,

(00:50):
it's great to have you on the show, and let's
just jump right in. Tell us more about the drive.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely, so, that's a great question. So we host
our annual holiday Toy Drive as part of an awareness
campaign we do every year around the holidays to remind
people that lottery tickets and products are not appropriate gifts
for children and young teens, so anyone under the age
of eighteen. So in order to do that, we're trying
to encourage our players, employees, and really just anyone who

(01:19):
wants to be part of this to come to the
Lottery headquarters or one of our six claim centers and
to bring an age appropriate gift instead of bringing any
Lottery products to their holiday parties or gatherings.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, scratch tickets can be fun, Like I love getting
some in my stocking. There's nothing wrong with that, but again,
I am of a certain age where you know it's
legal for me to do so. How often do you
think that people are buying scratch tickets or keynot tickets
or whatever for kids?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Really at the Lottery, our goal is just to remind
people that these aren't appropriate gifts for anyone under the
age of eighteen. And as part of that, in our
holiday awareness campaign, we do partner with the Department of
Public Health here in Massachusetts the Office of Problem Gambling
Services as part of their Give Joy Not Risk holiday
awareness campaign to really keep getting the messaging out there.

(02:07):
So at least in terms of where we sell our products,
we have messaging on all of our customer facing displays,
especially around the holidays, reminding people to maybe think twice
before they make that purchase and instead to participate in
our toy drive instead.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh for sure, I think some people might say, well,
what's the harm? Right, Like, why would I care if
my kid scratches off some scratch tickets or plays a
few lottery tickets. What is the response to that?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know? The response is that, one, it's not allowed.
That's not eligible for any of our products. So there's
that it's strictly against our rules. But also we just
don't want to cause any undue risk to anyone by
introducing them to our products before they are legally able
to play and before they kind of have a full
understanding of what our products do and the fund it

(02:57):
can provide for people. But we just don't want people
to get started or too early and risk any future complications.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Completely understood, all right, So let's talk about the toys,
the actual age appropriate toys. Who is going to be
the beneficiary of these toys once they're all collected?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, of course. So we're doing this in partnership with
the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots, So all of
our toys gathered from various donations are going to be
dropped off to US Marine Toys for Tots distribution centers,
or they will also go to some local regional efforts.
So our new Bedford office, they're partnering with the new
Bedford Firefighters Union for their toy drive to drop off

(03:37):
the toy so that they collect there so they can
get to local families in that region as well.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
And you have so many great customers and obviously, I
mean people are winning every day in the Mass lottery,
but it seems like to me there's got to be
a few special people who make this toy drive what it.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Is absolutely so you know, this is just a really
great example of that. Every year we do have a
past Grand Prize winners family come in to the Dorchester
headquarters specifically for the toy drive to donate an extremely
generous amount of gifts that we're able to add into
our whole distribution for this toy drive, and so they

(04:12):
are able to use the winnings from that previous win
in order to do this. And at least right now
they filled up our two boxes of donation, so we
took those toys out for now so we have some
space from some more donations to come in.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
That is amazing, And honestly, you know you don't have
to be giving two boxes worth of toys, but anything
you can bring will help. But we're talking, like you said,
age appropriate, not use toys that your kid just doesn't
want to get rid of. We're talking new unwrapped toys, correct.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Correct. And also something to keep in mind, these are
for young children and teens, so kind of keep that
in mind. We don't want too much for only the
really little kids. We want to have something in there
for the young teens to be able to enjoy as well.
So some creative thinking is helpful.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, definitely, And I'm sure books and board games, I
mean there's all sorts of stuff you can find these days.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Absolutely, and sports equipment. We really want to encoura it's
people to in kids to get out there and have
some fun.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
So people can drop these off at your headquarters in
Dorchester and at your prize claim centers around the commonwealth.
And again this is not just an Eastern Massachusetts thing.
This is all over the state, correct, correct.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So we have claim centers in Braintree, Lawrence, New Bedford,
West Springfield, and Worcester. So anyone can come during our
regular hours, so we're open typically Monday through Friday eight
forty five to four thirty pm. This holiday week for Thanksgiving,
our claim centers will be closing Tomorrow at two pm
and reopen Friday at eight forty five am, So keep

(05:34):
that in mind for any of your donations. But we're
running this through December tenth, so really, anyone who has
an interest in coming by and dropping off a donation,
we are so appreciative. I know for myself, I have
to go out and get my donation as well for
this worthy cause.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
All right. If people want to find out more about
the toy drive, or if they just want to find
out more about what's happening at the lottery, where can
they get a hold of you?

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Absolutely they can visit us at Masslottery dot com, or
they can find us on social media, so we're on Facebook,
x or Twitter, YouTube, Instagram anywhere. There they can definitely
find out about all the ongoings happening at the lottery.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
All right, Rachel, good information, great cause, the Mass Lottery
Holiday toy Drive. Thank you so much for coming on
to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Thank you so much, Nicole.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Have a safe and healthy Weekend. Join us again next
week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis
from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio