For almost 20 years, Steven McDaniel and his father, along with friends, would come to the annual Thanksgiving Day Georgia Tech Junior Varsity football game at Grant Field. Ticket proceeds were designated to benefit Scottish Rite Hospital and new toys were collected for the Marines Toys For Tots campaign. The annual Toys for Tots collection tradition ended in the mid to late 1990s.

For 34 years, McDaniel, now the campus coordinator for TFT, has been associated with the U.S. Marine Corp Reserve Toys For Tots program in honor of his father, who was a former Marine.  This past year marked the 15th year in which Georgia Tech has allowed McDaniel to coordinate the toy collection campaign.  Since 2007, former ResNet student assistants, Housing staff members and others, including the staff, students and faculty affiliated with RBI, have joined in to help with advertising, toy collections and making donations.  The amount of toy donations has increased year after year to help those less fortunate in the Metro (North) Atlanta area.

Those assisting with the drive each year include: Mike Black – Assistant Vice President, Housing; Don Neuendorff – Associate Director, Housing; John Nussear – Director, Conference Services; Sravanthi Meka – Marketing Manager, Housing & Conference Services; Tammy Wright – Assistant to AVP, Housing; Joseph Brown – Application Support Analyst, Housing & Conference Services; Melissa Moore – Director, Communications – Campus Services