Children from needy families will be receiving presents this holiday season thanks to the Richardson Court Association’s Toys for Tots drive.

The RCA Student Government is sponsoring the drive until Saturday, with the goal to collect 1,000 toys for underprivileged children.

Kelly Johnson, RCA educational/cultural chairwoman, planned the event. Last year, Johnson took part when Oak-Elm halls collected toys for the program, so she proposed including all of RCA in Toys for Tots this year.

“I’m constantly thinking of projects for RCA to do, so I thought we could expand it to all of RCA,” said Johnson, junior in child and family services.

Boxes have been placed at all of the RCA hall desks for the toys. Students can donate the toys any time the desks are open.

To help the program, the RCA assembly passed a bill to allocate $500 from its discretionary fund to buy toys. Also, Johnson and other members of the RCA assembly have asked individual houses to donate money.

“I have encouraged floors to look at their budgets to see if they have any extra money left over to donate,” Johnson said.

She said six floors have given RCA a total of $300. Johnson and several other members of the RCA executive council then bought toys with the money.

“Some of the floors wanted to donate money, but they weren’t sure if they’d have time to go buy toys, so they asked if we could buy them instead,” she said. “I’m sure there are a lot of other floors donating money and buying the toys themselves.”

Justin Holdridge, Inter-Residence Hall Association’s RCA at-large representative, said the drive is going well.

“We’ve gotten a wonderful response,” said Holdridge, senior in political science. “It’s something we could do for charity that would benefit those in need, and it’s something that everyone in RCA could help with.”

Holdridge said the drive will help parents who can’t afford to spend money on toys during the holiday season.

“For families who can’t afford it, it’s nice for a kid to get a brand-new toy,” he said.

Holdridge said this is the time of year when the Toys for Tots program is most essential.

“This is the main time when Toys for Tots is active,” he said. “For Christmas season, they go into full swing.”

Johnson said the Marine Corps Reserve, the group that sponsors Toys for Tots, will collect the toys Saturday.