The joy on the face of a child opening a gift of a toy on Christmas morning is a universal language that needs no words.

Various national and regional programs exist to gather and provide toys for children who might not otherwise receive them for a variety of situational reasons that are far beyond their control.

My husband and I have spent the last number of years supporting holiday and hospital charities that work hard to fill the need for those small holiday joys and close the gap that a certain number of families struggle or find impossible to fill.

Last week, Jason and I loaded up our Harley Davison motorcycle (otherwise known as the Metal Mistress to those of you who are frequent readers of my column) with our unwrapped toys and headed on down to Olympia.

We participated in one of the Puget Sound region’s largest toy collection runs.

We met up with other riders and friends of ours along the way making for a festive and adventurous time.

Bundled up against the elements of rain and cold, we were thankful that the worst of the weather and the holiday traffic held off so that we could arrive in Lacey just as the parade was getting ready to start.

Crowds of individuals and entire families lined the route of the parade to wave and cheer on the riders as they made their way through the streets of Olympia and around Capital Lake.

Riders parked in lines that stretched along Deschutes Parkway as far as the eye could see while volunteers in holiday hats and aprons traveled up and down the lines with bags in hand to make all of the collections.

This was the 38th time the annual Olympia Toy Run was held.

Toys and money gathered from the thousands of motorcyclists who participate go directly to the Salvation Army for distribution through their Toy ‘n Joy shop.

This past weekend, the Kitsap Toys for Tots program held their annual distribution out at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.

Toys For Tots is an annual event in Kitsap County, sponsored by the U.S. Marines stationed at Naval base Kitsap/Bangor.

Volunteers have been gathering toys since October and all  were distributed last weekend.

Documentation was required to show that anyone getting a toy was part of a family on some type of state assistance.  Around 3,000 Kitsap children and their parents selected gifts for kids ages 0 to 16.

A combination of generosity from the community, together with a large number of selfless hours of volunteer effort go into making these toy drives individual moments of joy for each and every child that they touch.

I want to take this moment to thank all of you who contributed to any of these programs.

From my family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas.

Colleen Smidt is a longtime resident of Bremerton and writes weekly about community and political matters. You can email her at colleensmidt@gmail.com.