No one ordered them to do this.
They did this completely on their own.
Big Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. didn't know anything about it.
But they decided that they wanted to do something for Christmas of 1947.
Now, this is right after the war.
The kids that were in poverty then, many of them were war orphans,
and their moms just couldn't make ends meet, much less putting
a gift under the Christmas tree.
So several months prior to Christmas, in 1947, they went out into the community.
They collected toys; their wives made Raggedy Ann dolls.
Then on Christmas morning, 1947, they got into their dress blue uniforms,
and they went out into the community distributing those toys that they had
collected and the dolls that their wives had made to economically
disadvantaged children.
Welcome to Veteran Led.
Today's guest is CEO of Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation, Lieutenant
General (USMC, retired) James Laster.
Some of General Laster's most notable assignments in his 38 years in the Marine
Corps are Commander of 3rd Marine Division, Chief of Staff of the United
States Special Operations Command, and Director of Marine Corps staff,
amongst many other positions.
Most importantly, he started off as an Infantry Officer.
Welcome to the show, General Laster.
Well, thank you, sir. Thanks, John.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate everything that you and your firm have done for me working through
my Veterans disability package.
You did a great job. Thank you.
Well, thanks.
It's such an honor to have you on the show.
After 38 years of military service, you continue to serve as the CEO and President
for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.
For a lot of us, 38 years of service is a lot.
Why continue to serve?
And why continue to serve at such a high level?
Well, that's a great question.
When I was getting ready to retire, I wanted to do something
that made a difference.
I used to work for a boss, an Army General by the name of Scaparrotti, General Curt
Scaparrotti, who said, "Whatever you do, make it matter."
That was his theme every day in Afghanistan.
And so I didn't want to just go to work for any corporation or
company just to make money.
I wanted to do something that made a difference, and in particular, made
a difference in someone's life.
I thought maybe education would be the right ticket for me.
And I was actually looking at some programs where they
teach you to be a school superintendent or a school teacher, and
then they will place you.
I was looking at a couple of different fast track programs like that.
Then the opportunity came about where the board of directors of Marine Toys for Tots
Foundation reached out to me and said, "Would you consider throwing
your name in to be the next President CEO of this organization?"
I thought about it, and I thought about all the great things that this program
does to reach less fortunate children across the nation, and I said yes to that.
It literally It took me about 24 hours to make the decision that this was the
right fit for me, and I'm glad I did.
I'm excited to get into the storied history from helping World
War II orphans to Walt Disney. It's a great story.
But I want to go back a little bit further to your father.
He continued to serve his community after getting out of the military.
Set that example for you as how Veterans should behave in their community
after their time and services done.
He had already gone to college, had a pharmaceutical degree,
and was working as a practicing pharmacist in a drug store, and then
decided that he wanted to go into the service, so he enlisted in the US Navy.
Of course, they immediately put him in charge of pharmacies.
He spent a year in Turkey.
He traveled a lot, and he ended his career in charge of the pharmacy at then Bethesda
Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, which is now the joint
medical Walter Reed facility.
That's what he did.
He was always a great--he since passed--but he was a great patriot.
He loved this country.
He loved all the services.
But I remember he told me, he said, "You know what?
If you're going to go into a service, I'd like to see you be a Marine."
That opportunity to become a Marine Corps officer presented itself through New
Mexico Military Institute. So please take us through that.
That's correct.
I was always interested in being a Marine, but then my senior year in high school, I
played football, and I received a call from the head coach at
New Mexico Military Institute, saying that they had seen some
game films of me playing.
I was a quarterback and a punter, and they were interested and wanted to know if
I'd be willing to come out and finish my last semester
senior year in high school at New Mexico Military Institute, go
through their spring training, and then start my junior
college career the next fall.
And so that's what I did.
But I also really thrived in the leadership part of being a
leader in the Corps of Cadets of New Mexico Military Institute.
I eventually became a Cadet Officer, a Troop Commander, Company
Commander there at the institute.
I was able to balance.
As you know, John, being a college athlete yourself, in many colleges, that's what
they focus on is the athletic piece of it.
But I was able to balance that.
I gave as much time in being a cadet leader there as I did in
the athletic piece of it.
I think that really helped me.
Then one day, I ran in to a Marine officer recruiter on campus from
Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the rest is history, so to speak.
What a lot of people don't understand is New Mexico Military Institute, as a junior
college, has had phenomenal football teams, has won national
championships, even won recently.
Some of the great players include Roger Staubach.
You got the opportunity to play football and learn leadership.
That pushed in the Marine Corps.
I similarly received a football scholarship to New Mexico
Military Institute.
But because I went there for two years of high school, I knew I did not
want anything to do with... Well, I wanted to enjoy college.
I ended up going to school on the East Coast.
I can't say enough about New Mexico Military Institute.
That really gave me the foundation of leadership and taking care of people, what
I call engaged leadership, that served me well for over 38
years in U.S. Marine Corps.
You find yourself transitioning to this role as CEO and President
of Toys for Tots.
Tell us a little bit about the origin story of this great organization.
Well, it all started in 1947 in Los Angeles.
There was a small reserve unit there, what we call today as a mobile
training team, mobile training unit.
It was led by then a Marine Reserve Major, Bill Hendricks.
These Marines and Bill Hendricks, they were concerned with the level of poverty
around in their community of Los Angeles.
Now, keep in mind, no one ordered them to do this.
They did this completely on their own.
Big Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. didn't know anything about it.
But they decided that they wanted to do something for Christmas of 1947.
Now, this is right after the war.
The kids that were in poverty then, many of
them were war orphans, and their moms just couldn't make ends
meet, much less putting a gift under the Christmas tree.
And so several months prior to Christmas, in 1947, they went out into the community.
They collected toys; their wives made Raggedy Ann dolls.
And then on Christmas morning, 1947, they got into their dress blue uniforms
and they went out into the community, distributing those toys that they had
collected and the dolls that their wives had made to economically
disadvantaged children.
It didn't take very long, within a matter of months, before other reserve units
across the country started to hear about what they had done.
Another interesting fact is Bill Hendricks, as a civilian, was in the film
industry, and he was friends with Walt Disney.
As the story goes, he and Walt were meeting one day.
I think it may have been over lunch. He was telling Walt what they were doing.
He says, "You know what? We don't what to call this thing.
We don't have a logo." Walt Disney, literally,
by his own hand, drew the three little train cars and wrote in
there "Toys for Tots".
Then it was Walt Disney who actually drew and developed the first poster that
the Marine Toys for Tots program used.
Bill Hendricks is known to this day as our father.
He later retired as a Colonel, a Reserve Colonel, and even got an Oscar for
doing a documentary on the U.S. Marine Corps from World War II.
But it's Walt Disney who gave us our name and our logo.
Of course, to this day, we maintain a very strong relationship and partnership with
the Disney Corporation.
They're great partners.
About a year later, this would be about 1948,
what the reserve units were doing got the attention of the Commandant of the
Marine Corps, General Clifton Cates.
General Clifton Cates says, "This is a wonderful community action program.
It keeps Marines tied to the general public and their communities."
He said, "I'm going to adopt this program.
I'm going to make it an official activity of the U.S. Marine Corps, and I'm going to
make it a mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve." From that point forward, it just
took off and spread to where 20 years later, all Marine Reserve units were
mandated that they would have a Toys for Tots program.
Then it was in the early 90s is when the Marine Corps decided that they
really should have a foundation, a 501(c)(3), that
provides oversight for the program.
That's when they asked a retiring General Officer, Lieutenant General Terry Cooper,
who was getting ready to retire, if he would establish the foundation.
He did.
He got us incorporated here in the state of Virginia.
Then the foundation has continued to grow and prosper and be the overall
oversight of the program, still supported by the Marine Corps reserve.
But the other thing interesting that occurred in the 90s was we opened the
aperture to allow civilians to volunteer and run campaigns for us, so to speak.
To this day, like last year, for example, there was only about 130 Marine reserve
units running campaigns, so 130 Marine reserve campaigns across the country.
But we had a total of 864 campaigns.
All the rest of those were civilians.
Now, many of them were Veteran Marines and Veterans from other services.
The Marine Corps League is a big supporter of ours.
But we are huge across the nation, a huge network, and
a distribution network as well.
We operate in all 50 states to include Guam, Puerto Rico, and
the US Virgin Islands.
From 1947 to what we are today, and we had our best year ever
this past year, we reached 10.
3 million children, and we're very, very proud of that.
It's not just the toys at Christmas time.
There are some other programs as well.
There are some profound statements that I believe you made that said, Look, this is
a message of hope for struggling families and children,
and children are tomorrow's leaders.
Before I became the CEO, the CEO before me was Lieutenant General Pete Osmond.
He had the foundation from 2008 to 2019.
A couple of years into his being the head of Toys for Tots, he started a
literacy program because he knew that literacy was the
foundation of everything of a child.
It also can help children pull themselves out of poverty.
And so he started a literacy program where we would collect and distribute books to
different organizations, Title I schools, and so on.
And when he gave up the foundation to me, when he passed the colors to me, my
first day on the job was 1 January, 2020.
I thought we could probably do more.
I called in the staff and I said, "Look, kids don't stop being in need
after Christmas.
So let's take the literacy program.
Let's use that as a model and see what other things that we could do to reach and
help less fortunate children year-around, not just during Christmas time."
The staff started looking at some models of what else that we could do.
Then, of course, as you know, just a few months later, the pandemic hit.
I called them back in.
I said, "Let's see what we've got now, because right now kids are scared,
families are scared." To make matters worse, all the schools
have sent them home, so they've lost that support structure.
Some of the children that we're interested in, their families may have been laid off
from work, which makes matters even worse.
So we got to do something.
Now, during this period of time, there were literally calls by some people to
us to maybe take a knee during 2020 and not have a program, a
Toys for Tots program.
I got with my colleague who is the Commander of Marine Forces Reserve,
Lieutenant General Dave Bellon at the time.
I told him the situation, and he and I together said, "Heck no.
We're US marines.
We're going to accomplish the mission.
We can operate in this environment." And we did.
We came up with programs in the spring of 2020 to reach out and distribute
books and toys and games to children.
We found out that many Title I schools were continuing to use their school busses
to deliver school lunches to kids.
Because in many of those schools, that school lunch, or in some cases school
breakfast, was the only meal an economically disadvantaged
child would get.
We decided, Okay, we'll give them books and games and things to send with
the school busses when they feed them their lunches or breakfasts.
The American people really responded to that.
We did that in the spring of 2020, and that gave us the idea to continue
with those programs after Christmas.
We also came up with concepts of touchless distribution of toys and books.
In the campaign of Christmas of 2020, since the pandemic was still surging
across the country, we would have families register online.
We would issue QR codes so that all they had to do was
drive up to a distribution point.
We would scan the code.
We would know exactly how many children, their ages, genders, and so on.
We would already have their toys and books prepackaged and just put them
in the trunk of their car.
That was so efficient that even now, with the pandemic over,
we still use that process today.
It was the pandemic that really gave us the idea that there's a lot more we can
do, and we can do it more efficiently.
Part of that is reaching out to kids.
Our new motto now is to be a year-around force for good.
We've established foster child programs.
We're working with big city police departments.
Tucson, Arizona, was one of our first to do this with, to reach out and support
foster families and children at risk, which police departments
really have their...
they know where those children are, and they've been a great help to us.
That's what happened during that period of time and what caused us to expand,
which has been very helpful, which I think has
been very helpful to children year round, especially those at risk.
You have the logistical tail on all this.
As a general officer, you understand the importance of logistics in warfighting.
But in this type of service, you think of all the volunteers that it takes just for
the Toys for Tots Christmas time to get all the toys, to get them distributed.
I think the last day is usually what, December 12th or something, that you can
get the toys in because they got to get to the kids on time.
Now you've moved into literacy, foster care, and other
opportunities to help children.
It seems the logistical requirements must just continue to grow.
That's correct.
It's a huge network and partnership with corporations.
We rely on the general public bringing us toys, new unwrapped toys, and we need
them to be unwrapped so we can make sure they're appropriate, and so we can tie
them to certain age groups of children.
That's the reason they need to be new and unwrapped.
But we also rely on the general public to just make monetary donations.
If a particular campaign in a part of the country comes up short in their collection
of toys, we can then go out and purchase toys and ship them to them.
Then the other aspect that we rely on greatly is our corporate
partnerships and those who are very generous with their gifts in kind.
Hasbro Toys is a huge one.
Legos.
Legos gives us millions of dollars worth of Lego sets every year.
I love Legos because they teach.
They teach cognitive skills.
I met with the CEO of Legos USA up in Hartford here not too long ago.
He said there's also studies that say they help in emotional development because,
as you know, many of those Lego sets are pretty complicated.
I don't know if I could put together some of them.
It normally takes other brothers, sisters, mom, and dad to chip in and
help put together those sets.
That brings the family together, which is good for the emotional
well-being of children.
We are blessed to have some wonderful corporate partners
that help us in this endeavor year-around.
Well, and you don't just help with the emotional well-being of the families that
you help--you help with the emotional well-being of all involved.
I believe I was reading something like the logistics of this is 10,000 children,
or I'm sorry, 10 million children, 24 million toys, books,
gifts, et cetera, and the number of volunteers who get to get
involved in their community and help this is what?
24,000, is that right?
51,000 volunteers.
We capture that.
In January, we have all our coordinators send in After Action Reports that goes
into our overall yearly audit and so on, so we can determine exactly what
what we did and how we did it.
We require them to put how many volunteers they had, and it all totaled up to
just close to 51,000 nationwide.
You see the numbers just continue to grow.
Where do you attribute that growth to?
I think when the general public sees what we do, they want to be a part of it.
I think just being part of an organization that's tied to the U.S. Marine Corps as an
official activity, I think, is it's very appealing to most people.
I think that's what it is.
We run it like a Marine program, very efficient, very professional.
I'm a little bit biased, but it's all true.
Well, the Marines are amazing marketers.
When the army is reaching out saying, We want to pay big bonuses, come get your
education, we'll pay for school, the Marine Corps says,
Why should I let you join my Corps?
There's something special about the Marine Corps marketing that seems to work.
I would point that out that even if it's a different organization, when you think
back to the the important messaging that gets out there is
that this is a hearts and minds campaign, and not just for the children who are
future leaders, but I think for all of the leaders in our community to step up and to
help and to get involved and to give back.
You've got a hearts and minds campaign.
You're helping disadvantaged families.
You're creating goodwill toward the Marine Corps, and it's not just for
warriors, it's for community leaders.
There are Marines who go in who don't just want to be warriors.
They want to give back. They want to serve.
This opens up that message that says, there are other ways to
serve your community.
You don't have to be an infantry soldier, even though that's what
General Laster wanted.
But in all seriousness, this is a great messaging
that shows we give back to the community, and we only take America's best.
I mean, such a great, great message.
How do you ensure that you maintain the integrity of that message?
I'm sure a lot of people want to partner.
There are a lot of volunteers, and you have to say no from time to time.
Actually, John, we very seldom say no.
If someone wants to reach out and help, there's a mechanism for them to help.
Now, for our coordinators, those that are considered the official coordinators head
of their campaign, we do do a background check on them.
We make sure that they are who they are and they're good people and no problems
with law enforcement or anything.
But everyone, and I appreciate what you just said a few minutes ago about you
can serve in a lot of different ways.
You don't have to necessarily wear a uniform.
I think that's the other thing that appeals to folks out
there who maybe didn't have a chance or an opportunity to serve in uniform.
There's plenty of ways to serve.
Just being involved in your community as a leader or volunteering to help others is
serving, in my opinion.
My hats off to those people that do that.
The vast majority of those 51,000 volunteers were folks who
fall into that category.
That's a testament to the great leadership, the
Marine Corps, but more importantly, your leadership--getting those volunteers.
It's easy when someone has to do something.
When you're in the military, you're ordered to do things.
You don't get to say, Well, I really don't want that mission.
But with volunteers, especially volunteers who are not in the military,
it's a different game.
It's a different game of influence.
It's a different game of understanding that there
may be some volunteers that fall off.
There may be some that it's not going to work out because we can't guarantee that
they're going to show up at formation 0500 this morning.
We have to anticipate that there may be attrition.
All the things that you do, continue to bring the volunteers back in
larger and larger numbers.
That takes us to the after action review.
Your best and worst examples of leadership.
I ask for three. I don't ask for names.
But if you could tell us, in forming General James Laster, who were the
greatest examples of leadership and who were some of the worst examples of
leadership that you learned from?
Once again, not names, but just examples or character traits.
Okay.
Well, I've always said that the mark of a great leader is someone who
really knows themselves.
They know what their limitations are, they know what their abilities are, and who
strives every day to just be a person of integrity and a person of character.
It's also someone who knows their people, knows their personal and professional
goals and inspirations, and is not afraid to sit down what we call in
the Marine Corps, kneecap to kneecap, look them in the eye and
exercise, engage the leadership and help them to achieve those goals.
I also attribute good leadership as people who know their stuff.
Brilliance in the basics is one of my things that I like to say, and to
be just an overall force for good.
That's where I had a General Officer mentor once that says, As a General
Officer, you really now are a force for good.
And your job now is to open doors for people, to help people, to inspire.
And so that gave me the theme for Toys for Tots, be a year-round force for good.
And so that's what a great leader is.
I've worked for several.
To become a General Officer, you have to have also a lot of joint service.
In other words, serving and joint commands with other services and leaders.
You said not to use names, but I'm going to use a couple if it's okay.
When I was in Afghanistan, that was a tough year.
It was in combat.
I was very, very fortunate to have two great leaders during that time General
Rodriguez, U.S. Army General, and General Scaparrotti.
It was General Scaparrotti who, first of all, both of them,
I mean, every one of these little things that I just said
about what makes a great leader.
They just exuded all of those things.
They were very personable. They were very open.
Their door was always open.
They were a mentor and a friend.
Even when things got bad, they would step forward and take
responsibility for what their units and command did or failed to do.
They didn't blame anyone else.
It was their fault. It was their responsibility.
They were wonderful men during a very tough year.
Another gentleman who I worked for after Afghanistan when I was
the Chief of Staff of U.S.
Special Operations Command, was Admiral Bill McRaven,
U.S. Navy CEO, famous special operator.
He was the one that led the raid that got Bin Laden.
He will go down as one of the best leaders I've ever been around.
Very personable, inspiring, smart, would listen, which
is probably one of the best traits that I could say of any leader, is to keep
your mouth shut and just listen.
Listen to people, listen to what advice they have and recommendations about how
to do things better and more efficient.
He was wonderful at that.
He just made you feel good.
You feared disappointing him.
That's the mark of a great leader.
Now, some of the bad traits, and I'm not going to mention any names here,
but I've known people that, first of all, some of these folks,
you wonder where they got, how they became a leader in the first place.
I think they're less and less now, but those who isolate themselves,
close themselves off to other people.
A good leader is someone who, when they come into the headquarters or come into
the office, even in a civilian capacity, walk around and see
people and talk to them. They know people.
Remember my first little edict here was know yourself and know your people.
There are people in leadership positions and management positions and
corporations who don't do any of that.
They walk in, they walk into their office, they turn their computer on, they don't
get to know the people around them, they don't try to assist other
people or to help them.
They don't get to know their families or know anything about
them or their families.
And so those are bad leaders.
Leaders that don't set an example or set a poor example,
whether it be by dress, whether it be by how they speak,
just how they treat people.
Talking down to people is a horrible trait for a leader or
anyone in a management position.
A leader is someone who inspires and takes care of people and helps people
to be the best that they can be.
That's what a leader does.
Absolutely. You mentioned a lot of officer leadership.
There's an NCO you mentioned in a previous podcast that's been on this podcast that
is very well known as a leader, and that's Sergeant Major John Wayne Troxell,
also a great leader.
I'd love to hear about a great example of NCO leadership that has
influenced you as well.
Well, Troxell, I can use him as an example.
He was General Scaparrotti's Senior Listed Advisor, our Command
Sergeant Major in Afghanistan.
He always had all of our backs.
He always tried to be where General Scaparrotti couldn't be.
And he would go out and do battlefield circulation, and he would
kneecap-to-kneecap discussions with junior enlisted people and NCOs and so on.
He would bring that information back to us as the senior leadership to tell us
what was really happening on the ground.
He was also a man who would...
he could read people very well.
He knew when you were having a bad day, and he'd just come in and sit next to you
and say,"Sir, is there anything I can do to help?
Can I take something off your plate?" That's the mark of a good NCO,
a good senior NCO like Troxell.
A good NCO helps leaders lead by leading up.
And what I mean by that is you offer to take things off their plate.
You come in when no one's around, you shut the door and say, "Sir, could I ask you,
or Ma'am, could I ask you to reconsider this?" And so that's the mark of a good
NCO--someone who's always there with you, that's beside you, who's loyal as the
day is long, which is what Troxell was.
Thank you so much for that great NCO example, General Laster.
I have a lot of joint time, and I spend a lot of time to include in
combat with men and women from all of the services to include the U.S. Coast Guard.
I will tell you that our nation couldn't be in better hands with
those young men and women that are around the world right now, making sure that our
way of life is protected and that we remain free.
How can people who want to get involved with Toys for Tots get a hold of the
organization and begin the process?
Well, there are several ways, but what I would say is just go online
and go to ToysForTots. org.
If you want to volunteer, the website will
navigate you to being able to volunteer in
your area, or if you just want to click on it and make a monetary donation,
that's greatly accepted and appreciated it as well.
And so that's the best thing I could say is just go to our website.
But also in a storefront and you see a Toys for Tots box,
think about going into the store, whether it be Walmart or Barns & Noble or what
have you, and purchase a toy and drop it in the box for us.
That's also very much appreciated.
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