If the holiday spirit weren’t already looming over El Dorado, Wednesday’s 14-hour Toy-A-Thon certainly set the mood for some Christmas cheer. The chilly weather aside, a total of 3,150 toys – which includes cash contributions – were donated to the Salvation Army of Butler County for distribution to area children this season.

With a live remote streaming from Wal-Mart, Dancin’ Don Hall and Rockin’ Rick Regan from Wichita’s Kissin’ 102.1 KZSN were on hand to emcee the all-day toy-raiser.
The country radio station hosted a Toy-A-Thon in Wichita for many years, Regan said, but some deliberation suggested a need in surrounding areas.

“Kissin’s a big radio station. We’ve been around for 20 years,” Regan said. “Just focusing all of our efforts on Wichita seemed maybe a little selfish. That’s the last thing we want to be, so we decided this year, it was time to spread out.”

The first annual Toy Tour had taken the disc jockeys to Derby and Wellington on Monday and Tuesday before their stop in El Dorado. The next three days will bring them to Newton, Hutchinson and finally back to Wichita.

“All the toys we collect in each different community stay in that individual community,” Regan said.

More than 2,500 toys were collected in Derby and Wellington topped 2,300.

“It’s the first year. It’s hard to know what to expect,” Regan said. “Every single toy makes a difference. If I leave here with enough toys for one kid, we started with zero.”

Regan said each town on the tour was responsible for organizing the event.

“It’s not a KZSN toy drive as much as it’s the El Dorado day,” he said.

Planning for the event began back in August and said this year’s event will act as a learning tool for the future.

Six days of 14-hour remotes can be fatiguing, Regan and Hall admitted, but they have no regrets.

“I can’t think a better way to spend my time. I can’t gather 2,000 toys by myself in the hours that I’m off work,” Regan said. “If we can stretch our work day out a little bit and make something like this go, man, let’s go, go go!”

“When you go home at night and your feet hurt and you’re a little tired and you’ve worked all day and you go home and you realize that you’ve collected 2,000 toys for kids that wouldn’t have a Chirstmas,” Hall said, “your feet don’t hurt nearly as bad and you’re not nearly as tired.”

No stranger to El Dorado, Regan said he met some “wonderful people” during the Toy-A-Thon.

“Your superintendent of schools, Sue Givens – you have found a real treasure with Sue Givens,” he said. “She has taken care of all these kids and getting them out here.
“I think it’s important that the arts are supported and I can see that is definitely happening out here, as the band and the choirs, they all sound fantastic. Man, El Dorado’s a great place.”

He also praised the city’s merchants and business people.

“That’s who really gets together and pulls something like this really tight,” Regan said. “They’re making a big difference today.”

In addition to tallying thousands of toys, the drive also featured performances by a number of USD 490 groups including El Dorado High School and Middle School choirs, band and orchestra.

“I am so proud of our district today,” Givens said. “You can tell the kind of effort they put forth to support the event. What you can’t tell is, throughout the day, our district has raised – our students and our staff have raised over $1000 and will bring out almost that many toys as well. Isn’t that awesome?”

Hall and Regen were sure to rib students like EHS freshman Casey Nightengale, who opted to perform in the frosty wind while wearing shorts.

Employees from Butler Secured Title dropped by with a load of toys for tots.

“Fourty-six toys. That converts over to 46 smiles and that going to take care of a lot of little kids this year,” Regan said .

On an unrelated note, Regan and Hall vociferously encouraged Butler Community College’s Grizzly football team.

“Make us proud! Go do what you do! Go kick some major Snow, Utah butt!” Hall shouted.