Long & Foster’s Shore Drive-Coastal Hosts Wine and Cheese Soiree to Boost Final-Days Toys for Tots Donations

January 5, 2018

Long & Foster Real Estate’s Shore Drive-Coastal offices brought its sales associates from across Hampton Roads and the Virginia Eastern Shore together in support of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots collection campaign. The office hosted a wine and cheese soiree to boost donations in the final days of its campaign.

The event was held Dec. 5 at the Shore Drive-Coastal office, just steps from the Chesapeake Bay. Agents enjoyed a region-based wine tasting sponsored by the office’s Senior Mortgage Consultant, Kim Borges, from Prosperity Home Mortgage LLC, and Insurance Manager Dawn Kay, from Long & Foster Insurance.

The Shore Drive-Coastal office is one of 200 Long & Foster offices throughout the Mid-Atlantic region that participated in the Toys for Tots drive, but this is the first year the drive had a presence on the Eastern Shore. Betty Lou Charnock and Betty Ann Latimer oversaw the campaign for the Shore Drive-Coastal office in Cape Charles, Virginia, and Patty Woodhurst oversaw the campaign for Long & Foster’s Chincoteague Island office.

“This year has been the first year that our office in Cape Charles has participated in Toys for Tots. We placed flyers around town and posted on our social media page and had a good response. Our small town always comes together and does so many wonderful things for our community,” Charnock said.

The gathering shined the spotlight on the Shore Drive-Coastal office and its core service partners and marked Long & Foster Real Estate’s 27th year participating in Toys for Tots.

“We were excited to once again take part in Toys for Tots and we couldn’t be more pleased with the agent support we received for this event,” said Tina Holt, vice president and managing broker for the Shore Drive-Coastal and Eastern Shore offices. “It’s great to know that by collecting toys throughout the holiday season, we can help make sure children in our area who are less fortunate have a more cheerful holiday.”

The Shore Drive-Coastal office launched its Toys for Tots drive in mid-November and filled two donation boxes with unwrapped gifts for children in the local community.

Once the toys are collected and presented to the U.S. Marines, they are distributed through churches and social welfare agencies to the neediest children throughout the community. Started by the U.S. Marines in 1947, the Toys for Tots campaign is an annual toy collecting drive that now reaches throughout 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Toys for Tots has distributed millions of toys to millions of children over the years, and Long & Foster contributes to this effort by collecting thousands of new toys throughout the company’s Mid-Atlantic market area each year.