Covelli Enterprises helps Valley children with $15,000 Toys for Tots donation

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI

jgrzelewski@vindy.com

WARREN

A generous donation from Covelli Enterprises, the largest franchisee of Panera Bread restaurants in the country, will go a long way toward making sure children in the Mahoning Valley have presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

Allen Ryan, director of corporate affairs for Covelli, on Friday presented a $15,000 check to the local U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program. The program has distributed 512 million toys to 237 million children since it was founded in 1947.

Toys for Tots collects new, unwrapped toys and distributes them to partner organizations in local communities, with the goal of bringing joy to less fortunate children on Christmas.

This year, the program serving Mahoning and Trumbull counties will distribute about 40,000 gifts to more than 8,000 children, according to Sgt. Gregory Peterkin.

The program is “something that’s very important to us as marines because we are part of this community, even though we come from all over the country,” said Peterkin, who is originally from Boston and has been stationed in Vienna for a year and a half. “It feels good to give back wherever we’re stationed.”

Peterkin noted that Covelli is among Toys for Tots’ most generous local sponsors.

“They’re one of our largest donors and they’ve also been donating to us the longest out of all our corporate sponsors,” he said.

This year’s donation continued a tradition that goes back more than 35 years. Over that time period, Covelli Enterprises reports it has donated more than $600,000 to Toys for Tots.

Along with Friday’s donation, Covelli will be supporting Toys for Tots in a variety of other ways. A $1,000 toy display is set up at the Elm Road Panera Bread. All Covelli-owned Panera Bread locations will have donation boxes at the register for customers who wish to contribute.

Covelli will also send volunteers to purchase and distribute toys with Toys for Tots representatives.

Ryan said Covelli’s considers the program “a very important cause to support.”

“There’s nothing worse than a child that gets up on Christmas morning and doesn’t have any presents to open,” he said. “We want to make sure as many children here locally have smiles on their faces” on Christmas morning.

“It is a true privilege to be able to partner with Toys for Tots in all of our Panera Bread bakery-cafes,” said Sam Covelli, owner and operator of Covelli Enterprises, in a statement. “This has been a cause we’ve supported for more than three decades, and it’s because we are committed to taking care of people in our communities, especially children and especially during the holiday season.”