More than 60 guests received a special invitation in the mail this month. The card read, “I know my presents will be nice and pretty, but I want to share them with other little kiddies. Other boys and girls need Christmas gifts too, so I’m donating my presents to a charity from you!”

Jake and Misty Williams will throw their daughter a party with a Christmas twist this year. Rather than presents for 1-year-old Reese, guests will bring presents for Toys for Tots to benefit the needy children of Carroll, Haralson and Heard counties.

Reese’s mother hatched the idea after considering the proximity of her daughter’s birthday to the Christmas holiday.

“We’ve been very fortunate to be able to pretty much get her whatever, and both sets of grandparents are the same, so we knew that she would have no shortage of gifts,” said Misty Williams. “Since her birthday is just before Christmas, we started thinking about how much stuff we’d get in one week.”

She decided to look online to see if there was an opportunity to turn Reese’s birthday into something bigger.

“I looked at some charities online, and the one we wanted to do was Toys for Tots, so we included a little invitation which was a poem from her [Reese] saying that she wanted everyone to bring any toy for any age kid to donate.”

She contacted Matt Careins with Toys for Tots, who agreed to attend the party to pick up the gifts in his U.S. Marine Corps uniform. Toys for Tots is a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve program.

“I thought it would be a good chance to reach other people and get them involved,” said Misty Williams. “We hope this will give her [Reese] encouragement in years to come to do something similar, and everyone else out there who has a December birthday.”

Her husband, Jake Williams, gave the credit for the idea to his wife.

“I actually can’t take any of the credit for it, she came up with the idea and I told her it was a good one,” he said. “Between us and the grandparents, she’s got plenty, especially for a 1-year-old who is not really going to know what she’s getting anyway.”

Toys for Tots, which is about 20,000 toys short of its 25,000-toy goal, can use the help. Carlis Baker, Toys for Tots regional coordinator, called the Williams family personally to thank them for their support.

“They’re an average American family, and she wanted to have people come for a party, so she said ‘hey, let’s help other people,’” said Baker.

Toys for Tots has so far received toy requests from about 1,200 families in Carroll County, 400 in Haralson County, and 200 in Heard County, which works out to around 5,400 children. Baker expects to receive requests from as many as 10,000 children this year in the tri-county area, and that number could jump sharply as Dec. 25 draws closer.

“We’ll see about a 30 percent increase in walk-ins as we get closer to Christmas, and we’ve got to be there for those people too,” said Baker.

Some families wait until the last minute because they’re unsure about what the state of their finances will be come Christmas.

“What about the person who is just really just doing everything they can up until the last minute and just doesn’t know if it’s going to work out, and they don’t know if there is hope,” said Baker. “But there is hope.”

Southwire, which usually contributes about 5,000 toys, will have its annual two-day toy drive in the company’s employment center parking lot today and Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pioneer Ford in Bremen will host a toy drive on Dec. 12.

Other businesses have found a unique way to do their part: feeding hungry volunteers.

“Arby’s gives us two sandwiches for a dollar, Papa John’s has given us eight pizzas, Walmart gave two large sandwich trays with all the drinks to go with it, everything adds up,” said Baker.

Toys for Tots has drop sites at the Times-Georgian, VFW Post 7404, Liberty Chevrolet, Southwire, all Carroll County fire stations, Sony, the Carrollton Kmart and Big Lots, the Lowell Opry House and other major businesses throughout the tri-county area. More information is available at toysfortots.org.