Stuff-A-Bus collects holiday toys

WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology and Stuff-A-Bus have joined together in order to give back this year.

Bloomington Transit, B97 and the Salvation Army are sponsoring Stuff-A-Bus, a donation event in which a bus will go to various locations where people can give unwrapped new toys and new children’s coats and mittens. These items will be given to local families in need over the holidays.

Volunteers are needed to help with Stuff-A-Bus events this upcoming holiday season.

To encourage the donation process, WonderLab is offering 10 percent off gift store purchases Dec. 4. WonderLab is also accepting donations of gifts bought anywhere and is selling Stuff-A-Bus donation tags for $1, $5, $10 and $25 at the museum’s welcome desk.

If people are not able to donate during Stuff-A-Bus, they can do so at Bloomington Transit’s main office at 130 W. Grimes Lane.

“It makes people’s money go farther,” said Colleen Couper, gift store manager and buyer for WonderLab.

Couper said that WonderLab is helping promote the event, and the workers can help people search for good donation items in their gift shop.

“With some of these toys, kids don’t realize they’re learning,” Couper said.

Since the beginning, B97 has been involved, and this year, Brandon Scott, the station’s program director and afternoon DJ, will be living on the bus from start to finish.

Scott said he has been working with Stuff-A-Bus for three years and he got the idea to live in the bus from other radio stations that did the same thing.

“I really believe in Stuff-A-Bus,” Scott said. “I like to give instead of receive.”

He said that he once bought a bike for a 7-year-old boy through an event like this. Somehow this boy found him, gave him a hug and told him that he really wanted that bike and would not have gotten it otherwise.

“This is something we’ve always done,” said Libby Hiple, broadcast marketing specialist for B97. “We’re hyper-local; we want to be involved and be an outlet for the community.”

Hiple said last year more than 400 families were helped and more than 900 kids below the age of 13 were affected by this program.

This year the outside of the bus was designed by Meghan Frost, an IU student. The bus is white with the words “Warm-A-Heart” across the top.

The bus will bring the donations to the Salvation Army, and the presents will then go to fill the Angel Trees for children in Monroe County.

Brenda Underwood, human resources and marketing administrator for the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation, said she finds the work very fulfilling.

“It’s rewarding starting with an empty bus, and by the end it’s filled to the front and you know it’s going to brighten up the holidays for a lot of kids,” Underwood said.