Motorcycle Parade Won’t Roll, But Toys for Tots Still Needed

CHICAGO — There will be no motorcycles zooming down Western Avenue this year on the first Sunday of December for the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade. Like many events in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has sidelined the annual toy drive that draws thousands of bikers spreading holiday cheer.

Since 1978, the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade has collected toys for underprivileged kids all over the Chicago area in cooperation with Marine Corps. As many as 50,000 bikers have congregated the first Sunday in December at the South Side Dan Ryan Woods, at 87th Street and Western Avenue, before roaring up Western ending somewhere on the North Side. The only requirement was that each motorcyclist bring a new, unwrapped toy.

“The biggest influx of toys we get is from the parade,” said George Lester Fortier, president of Chicagoland TFT. “There are no special events in Chicago at all this year because of the pandemic.”

After much back-and-forth with the mayor’s office and Forest Preserves of Cook County, the organization couldn’t get a permit. Without a permit, CTA buses could not be rerouted, the speed cameras turned off or police escorts. Without a permit, the parade could not be insured. The group made the hard decision to cancel this year.

“We had a lot of meetings,” Fortier said, whose been riding in the Toys for Tots parade since the 1980s. “They told us we could have ten motorcycles in Dan Ryan Woods, counting ourselves. If we spaced ten bikes apart, the line would go all the way to Indiana. Nobody wanted to say no, but we couldn’t give what they expected from the organization.”

While there won’t be a motorcycle parade this year, the group will still be collecting toys from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, at Magoo’s Bar, 6550 S. Menard Ave., Bedford Park, and DePaul College Prep, 3333 N. Rockwell St., Chicago.

Over the years, there have been weddings with parade participants getting married in the Dan Ryan Woods. The first Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade took place Dec. 13, 1978, with one borrowed Harley and a van half filled with toys.

When the bike’s chain broke, the parade’s founder, Ed "Aminal" Wisniewski, a Vietnam veteran and former owner of Fantasy Choppers, made the final stretch down Western holding on to the van’s door handle. The next year, 100 bikers showed up and the parade continued to grow. Today, the motorcycle parade is Chicago's largest contributor to Toys for Tots.

This is the second time in the motorcycle parade’s 43-year history that it has been canceled. In 1990, the parade was called off during Operation Desert Storm, when the bikers’ original destination — the Glenview Naval Air Station — was closed to outside visitors due to terrorism concerns.

“Technically, because we’re still at war we can’t go to the bases,” Fortier said.

Demand for toys this year has been higher than past years because of the many families impacted by the pandemic.

“We’ve gotten thousands of requests,” Fortier said. "We’ll try to help as many kids as we can. Instead of giving a bag with $100 worth of toys, we’ll give maybe only $50 worth this year.”

Chicagoland TFT Parade donation boxes can be found in every Chicago fire station, as well as 300 other locations throughout the city and suburbs.

“We’ll go out and buy basketballs and footballs and make up for what we lost on the ride down Western,” said Tom Zordini, a parade participant and rider. “We got out and buy batteries because you can’t give a toy to a kid without batteries.

Toy requests are filled from a warehouse the group rents in Bridgeview, where volunteers spend up to 15 hours per day processing requests and sorting through toy donations. The group is still accepting requests for toys.

“We don’t take requests by email or fax,” Fortier said. “We just need a brief description and whether it’s for a boy or girl.”

Send toy requests or monetary donations to: Chicagoland TFT Parade, 8900 Odell Ave., Bridgeview, IL 60455; or P.O Box 388500 Chicago, IL, 60638. Donations can also be made on the group’s GoFundMe page.