GREAT FALLS, Mont. — This year, Toys for Tots volunteers are working out of a portable shed donated by Summit of Montana. Though on the dirt next to it, the nonprofit hopes to build something that will serve families for years to come.
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Plans call for a 40-by-60-foot warehouse just outside of the city, giving volunteers a permanent place to collect, sort and store donations throughout the year.
Toys for Tots of North Central Montana served about 10,000 children across nine counties in 2025, according to coordinator Kat Whitish. The program works with families and organizations, including schools, to get gifts to children before Christmas.
For volunteers, that work has also meant finding space, moving supplies and packing everything back into storage each year after the holiday season.
“If we want to do an event, it’s us crawling over and digging through storage,” Whitish said. “So it will be nice just to have everything in a permanent spot so that we don’t have to do that anymore.”
She explained having a warehouse of their own would make it easier to hold events throughout the year and give the roughly a dozen volunteers a place to work together.
Inside their temporary home, the layout will allow for tables on either side of a narrow aisle where volunteers can gather toys for orders.
However, the proposed warehouse would offer more room to organize those orders and get them ready for pickup. Eric Weaver, owner of Summit of Montana, pointed to a large garage door, which would let several volunteers or vehicles bring donations in and out at the same time.
“We’re going to have more room for people to come pick up their orders, stuff to be staged ready on time and just all around ready to go when it needs to be,” said Corday Podvin, the program’s event and community coordinator.
Podvin has been working with local businesses to gather support and donated materials for the project. Weaver is helping coordinate deliveries and plans to have one of his crews put up the building.
He said once the materials are on site, favorable weather could allow his crew to erect the structure in about a week to 10 days. A firm move-in date has not yet been announced.
For Weaver, a father of four, helping Toys for Tots is also a chance to give children the kind of Christmas memories they can carry with them.
“We never had everything we wanted growing up,” Weaver said. “And so to be able to kind of give back that way and give a kid a good Christmas childhood memory that they can hold on to, I’m all about that.”
For more information on Toys for Tots in North Central Montana, you can check their Facebook page.
