PITTSTON — What started out as an idea to help a local Salvation Army’s Christmas toy drive ended up being a turning point in Tony Marranca’s life — something he never expected.
Because of his action to assist the Salvation Army of West Pittston, Marranca, 49, of Pittston, has been selected as the 2018 Sunday Dispatch Greater Pittston Person of the Year.
“I was stunned, unbelievable,” Marranca said upon learning he had been selected. “That’s not why we did this and we weren’t looking for any recognition other than for people to help us out and donate toys. To have the charity recognized and not just me is more than I could have imagined.”
What Marranca did was organize a fundraiser in just five weeks by collecting toys, money and clothing items for West Pittston’s Salvation Army in time for children to enjoy Christmas.
Marranca has been responsible for organizing an annual Turkey Bowl, a touch football game played every Thanksgiving morning for about 20 years. He is a big draw as many former Pittston Area football players and childhood friends come out to participate.
Prior to the Turkey Bowl, Marranca had a conversation with his neighbor Reba Emil, a volunteer and soldier at the church of the Salvation Army of West Pittston.
During their exchange, Emil told Marranca of the shortage of toys and money at the church. Emil seemed clearly distressed to Marranca and he knew something had to be done.
According to Emil, two of the three Salvation Army coin-drops, Kmart and Ray’s Market, had closed, leaving the organization with just one drop-off, the Walmart Supercenter in Pittston. The lack of donations created a large hole for the toys and clothing program at the Salvation Army for the Christmas campaign.
Marranca brainstormed and came up with the idea of having everyone participating in the Turkey Bowl bring a new, unopened toy to the game.
“I called the guys and I asked some of them if they might bring a toy to the game,” Marranca stated. “I was hoping to get 25 or 30 toys. Then we had an idea to put it on Facebook. Once we did that, we started getting $100, $200, $300 donations from good friends, acquaintances, people wanting to help – people just wanting to help. It just took off.”
Marranca began buying toys from Amazon.com daily, purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of toys per day.
“It just really blossomed; it got way bigger than we ever thought it would get,” he added.
Due to inclement weather, the game was moved from Thanksgiving to the Sunday after the holiday. On Turkey Bowl game day at West Park, the site of Jr. Patriots football, as many as 30 participants showed up and the toys accumulated.
“The Jr. Patriots team opened the concession stand as toys were piling up and, before we knew it, Francine Arcaro, of Arcaro’s restaurant from downtown, donated food,” Marranca said. “It was amazing.”
The Salvation Army was able to utilize an empty storefront at the Insalaco Shopping Center in West Pittston donated by the Insalaco family as a drop-off distribution center for toys and clothing.
Marranca and company held true to their promise made five weeks earlier to help the Salvation Army. Three truckloads of 445 toys and 37 articles of clothing were delivered on Dec. 2, 2018.
“Tony, literally five weeks before Christmas, gathered his fellow high-schoolers up and I think a few other men he knew and collected the toys,” Lt. Gavin Yeatts, of the West Pittston Salvation Army, said. “He called me and asked if I could meet him at the distribution center.”
Yeatts and his wife Lt. Holly Yeatts, also of the Salvation Army, patiently waited for Marranca to arrive, not knowing what to expect upon delivery.
“I thought he was bringing maybe a truckload. They pulled up with three truckloads of toys and just gave them to us and it blew our minds,” Gavin Yeatts said. “The toys he brought us definitely sustained us through the Christmas season. We were able to help all of the children and all of the families that signed up for help.”
The Pittston Area girls basketball team got word of the collection by Marranca and began collecting items for the donation.
“The team came in and made a bunch of guys in their 40s cry when they saw them all,” Marranca said. “They all came in almost marching like regalia with their team warm-up sweats on with toys. Coach Healey and Coach Casper really put something nice together.”
The Yeattses were assigned to the West Pittston Salvation Army in the summer of 2018 and did not know what to expect from the church or the community.
“To see the community come together like this just warmed our hearts,” Gavin Yeatts said. “To see Tony, somebody step up like that and do what needed to be done for not only the Salvation Army but for his community, is just incredible to us. It’s fantastic.”
Because the toy collection was so successful, Marranca and his team, now called the Pittston Santa Squad, are in the process of filing as a non-profit group to continue helping others in Greater Pittston. He cited Paint Pittston Pink’s co-founder Barbara Sciandra, the Sunday Dispatch 2014 Person of the Year, as an inspiration and the motivation to move forward as a non-profit.
The Pittston Santa Squad is thinking above and beyond collecting toys. Marranca said the squad would like to revive the Coats for Kids program which was the brainchild of the late Joe Tavaglione 30 years ago in the Pittston area.
“We’d like to help with whatever families need when the weather turns colder and Christmas season rolls in,” he said. “We’re looking to help out in any way we can. We’d like to keep this going for as long as we can.”
