MVH Employees Brighten Christmas for Mon Valley Children

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 November 2014 03:22

This Christmas will be much brighter for many children in the Mon Valley, thanks to the generosity of Monongahela Valley Hospital's staff.

Toys for Tots

MVH employees in every department have collected new, unwrapped gifts for the mid-Mon Valley Toys for Tots program since it began in 1986, and the collection boxes throughout the hospital campus are filling up.

In addition, hospital leaders have been assembling toys in a Santa's-workshop-style gathering every year for the last seven years, according to MVH Toys for Tots Coordinators John Bogdan, RN, BSN, nurse manager of the Behavioral Health and EEG Departments, and Doug Prentice, Storeroom manager.

Toys for Tots Program Coordinator Wally Fronzaglio, of Donora, attended to witness this year's recent toy assembly held in the hospital's Anthony M. Lombardi Education Conference Center.

Fronzaglio then accepted the assembled toys afterwards on behalf of the Mon Valley Leathernecks, a group of more than 160 former Marines of all ages that "does all the legwork" for the local Toys for Tots Program. The Leathernecks formed in 1986 to run a local collection program.

Fronzaglio said the Leathernecks also accept cash donations and then purchase additional new toys from stores in the Mon Valley, which he says is an extra little boost to the local economy.

Anyone can send a check made payable to "Toys for Tots" to Wally Fronzaglio/Toys for Tots, 204 Brokaw Ave., Donora, PA 15033, before Dec. 15. Checks received after that date will be used for the 2015 drive.

For more information on the local program, contact Coordinator Wally Fronzaglio after 5 p.m. at 724-379-8888.

Toys: Monongahela Valley Hospital's Toys for Tots Program Coordinators Doug Prentice and John Bogdan pose with Mon Valley Leathernecks Toys for Tots Program Coordinator Wally Fronzaglio and some of the toys assembled by MVH management. Fronzaglio has been the local Toys for Tots coordinator for 26 years and MVH leaders have held the annual Santa's workshop-style event for the last seven.