Fundraiser for Toys for Tots set for Friday at Triple Dog

Havre again is participating in the U.S. Marine Corps Christmas drive Toys for Tots, and Triple Dog Brewing Co. is hosting a fundraiser Friday for the effort.

Holiday Family Photo with Steve Helmbrecht of Helmbrecht Photography will start at Triple Dog Friday at 5 p.m.

Organizers said everyone is welcome to the event. Photos are $25 for a 5- to 10-minute photo session with Helmbrecht.

People will need to leave their emails with Helmbrecht and he will email the photos within three to four days in a digital image people can download.

People older than 20 who pay for a photo session can also get a free beer.

Toys for Tots is a 501 (c)(3) fundraiser to collect toys, funds and other gifts for underprivileged children and families during the Holiday season. The program averages donating more than 18 million toys for more than 7 million children every year.

Toys for Tots in Havre was held for the first time last year after Edward Jones Financial Advisor Jennifer Tilleman heard the Havre Jaycees was ending its annual Community Toy Chest to focus on some new projects and programs.

Another reason she started the program in Havre is because Edward Jones has had a long relationship with the Toys for Tots program and believed it would be a great addition to the number of other programs in the community for the holidays, she said.

Last year, Tilleman said, the drive provided toys for 32 children had a total of 106 gifts were donated.

This year, she has partnered with Havre’s Salvation Army to put on Toys for Tots.

Tilleman said in people can drop off toys at Pacific Steel and Recycling, Independence Bank, Edward Jones and Bergren Transmission and Auto Care. She added that collection dates at all drop off locations are on Friday, Dec. 13. 

“We ask for new, unwrapped toys for ages 0-17,” she said.

Erin Garrity, who owns Triple Dog with her husband and brewmaster Michael Garrity, said they decided to organize the fundraiser because she and her husband have always wanted to do community organized events. She added that Toys for Tots is a great organization which provides children who are less fortunate new toys. 

“We have always wanted to give back to the community, whether it’s specifically kids in this town, this county, even in Great Falls, it doesn’t really matter,” Erin Garrity said. “I think that it’s important that kids, especially around Christmas — you know —everybody deserves to get something.”

Helmbrecht said that he wanted to do the photo event again because it was fun and was for a good cause.

He said that the event is very casual and he just takes a few photos of people with their families and or pets in front of a Christmas tree set up in the back of the brewery.

“It’s just a fun kind of get together for a good cause,” he said. “… It’s just kind of a cool thing people can do.”

Garrity said that if people do not want to purchase a photo session they can still bring in a toy to donate.

“I think anybody who isn’t a Grinch would want to participate in this in some way or another,” she said.