Toy Story
20 October 2011
Under-privileged children from Ho Chi Minh City were the recipients of eight trunks of toys, hand delivered by members of HMA Ships Huon (LCDR John Relyea) and Yarra (LCDR Brad Vizard) recently.
The ships’ launched ‘Operation Toys’ two months before sailing on their South East Asia deployment, asking family and friends to get onboard and donate unwanted toys to needy children.
Both crews got behind the project with Reynolds saying they were amazed by peoples generosity.
“The concept of the collection was to environmentally recycle all those unwanted/unused toys that most Australian families have stashed away and to then find a new home with less fortunate children,” Reynolds said.
“ABCK Trent Allman and LSCD Jeff Simes were inspired and promoted the collection amongst their respective communities - the Southern Highlands and Manly. In the end we arrived at the Binh Loi Social Centre with eight large trunks of toys, weighing in at approximately 300kg.”
“It was terrific to see the kids’ excitement as they discovered the toys were for them to keep,” said LEUT Reynolds.
“Judging by their smiles as they devoured plates of ANZAC biscuits and party pies and later literally waded through the masses of delivered toys, you could tell they were having a great time,” said ABCSOMW Alcorn.
Whilst the “operation” seemed relatively straight forward, the crews were met with several challenges along the way.
“Finding storage space onboard and gaining local approval to land the toys into Vietnam presented some hurdles,” said LEUT Reynolds.
“Luckily the Australian embassy staff worked relentlessly to ensure the success of the ‘operation’.”
Following the visit, the ship’s crews “passed the hat around” collecting their unspent local currency to raise a donation of 3.1 million dong (approximately A$150) – a sizeable donation to the children’s centre, given the economy of the country.
The two Mine Hunter Coastal’s visited Ho Chi Min City as part their three month South East Asia deployment.
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