His beard is red instead of white and his sleigh is a Jeep Cherokee, but otherwise it’d be easy to mistake Fred Ries for Santa Claus.
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Local 654 journeyman wireman Fred Ries, pictured with two Marines at the drop-off event, launched his own Toys for Tots drive in 2017 as an apprentice before partnering with his union in 2020. The project has gotten bigger every year since, helping local Marines fulfill the wishes of as many as 20,000 children in the region. "It blows my mind how much people donated — one car after another coming and unloading," Ries said after the 2024 event. He has continued to deliver toys to the charity from IBEW worksites and other donation box locations throughout the holiday season.
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| Local 654 apprentices and military veterans Hoang Hunyh and Ron Workman carry out early donations that began filling the local's executive boardroom weeks in advance of the Nov. 2 event.
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| Local 654 apprentices, journeymen and their families turned out in force to volunteer at the drop-off event, arriving with their own armloads of donations.
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With help from the eager elves of Chester, Pa., Local 654, the twinkly-eyed journeyman wireman is finishing another holiday season of nonstop deliveries to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program in the southwestern suburbs of Philadelphia.
“I’m still collecting boxes that are floating around the community,” Ries said in mid-December, more than a month after his local hosted an epic drop-off that filled a large box truck 2½ times over with new, unwrapped toys, games, dolls, books, sports equipment, bicycles and more.
“This has been the best year yet, and the plan is for it to keep getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
That’s not just Ries talking. 1stSgt Ashley Pardee of the area’s Marine Corps Reserve Center said the Nov. 2 haul from Local 654 was the single largest collection event of the season for the Delaware County Toys for Tots region.
“The turnout was absolutely overwhelming,” Pardee said. “We strive to provide toys for 17,000 to 20,000 children each year, and we could not reach our goal without large events like the IBEW’s. We cannot express enough gratitude for all those involved and for all those who donate.”
Toys for Tots is one of the countless ways that IBEW locals around the country help make the holidays brighter for people in need.
“Our members are unfailingly generous in giving their time, energy and hard-earned dollars to people less fortunate, and they do it year-round,” International President Kenneth W. Cooper said. “But the holidays are always an extra special time of giving, and it’s a huge source of pride to see our locals spring into action with coat and toy drives, food bank donations, arranging parties and Santa visits for low-income children, and so many other acts of goodwill.”
Ries was a Local 654 apprentice and newly discharged Marine reservist when he launched a Toys for Tots drive on his own in 2017, starting by asking employers for permission to set up donation boxes at IBEW worksites. The charity helped him feel connected to his military service and, singlehandedly, he expanded his efforts throughout the community.
In 2020, Business Manager Paul Mullen asked Ries if he’d be interested in heading a Local 654 Veterans Committee.
“Before I could get the words all the way out, he already agreed,” Mullen said. “He just said ‘yes’ right away, and that’s just the kind of person Fred is. He wants to give back all the time.”
Mullen didn’t know then that Ries’ activities included Toys for Tots. When he found out, the local wasted no time jumping aboard. The 2024 season marked four years of collaboration.
“I was just collecting toys and trying to stay involved with the Marine Corps,” Ries said. “Then the IBEW got involved, and it just blew up. It’s far bigger than I could have ever imagined.”
Getting a head start is key. In September, Ries began delivering the familiar white cardboard boxes to IBEW jobsites, politicians’ offices, shopping centers and other high-traffic locations. By Halloween, Local 654’s executive boardroom was overflowing with the early donations he’d retrieved. Meanwhile, staff rushed to deck their hall in Christmas colors for the big event two days later.
IBEW volunteers and their families turned out in droves, carting the toys stacked inside to the local’s lawn and adding their own gifts to the eye-popping array. Before long, community leaders, IBEW contractors and vendors, and other area residents began to arrive with armfuls of donations that members sorted and loaded into trucks.
“The event was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., and by 9:30 our parking lot was full,” Mullen said. “We had a very good day, and one of the nicest things was how many apprentices turned out. It wasn’t mandatory — they just came on their own, so many young people wanting to give back.”
For Ries, the season had only just begun. Despite early November’s bounty, he knew from experience that donation boxes fill up even faster when holiday shoppers hit the streets.
“After work, I go to as many as the drop sites as I can get to before the car’s full, and then I drop them off when I go to work the next day,” he said two weeks before Christmas.
As luck would have it, Ries is working on renovations at the very Marine Reserve Center that is the area’s Toys for Tots collection point.
“It makes it a lot easier when I’m working with these people every day,” he said. “I’m able to get all the materials I need for the drop boxes and flyers and coordinate with them on all the details.”
Besides his Marine ties, Ries is motivated by his own good fortune and happy memories of holidays with his parents and two sisters. “Our Christmases were awesome,” he said. “We never missed out on anything.”
As an adult, it’s the giving that excites him, even if he doesn’t get to see the children’s smiles firsthand. Toys for Tots delivers the unwrapped gifts to homes for parents to wrap and put under the tree.
But Ries got a glimpse of the joy a few years ago when he accompanied a local mayor on a special Toys for Tots delivery. “The mother had three young kids, and she and the dad worked multiple jobs,” he said. “We brought a couple big bags of toys in the house, and I gave her a gift card from Local 654 for Christmas dinner. She gave me a big hug and was so thankful and grateful.”
For Pardee, the region’s senior enlisted leader for Toys for Tots, the IBEW’s generosity is especially meaningful, as her father owned an electrical business and her father-in-law was a journeyman wireman out of Rock Island, Ill., Local 145.
“We are huge supporters of the IBEW,” she said. “This has been such a positive relationship for the Marines and the less-fortunate children of Delaware County. And we could not have done it without the continued support and effort of Fred Ries. Fred is a shining example of what it means to be involved in the community and to support our neighbors in need.”
Click to learn more about Toys for Tots and how to donate.