U.S. Marines sort Christmas gifts for youngsters on Guam, Tinian, Saipan and Rota at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, Guam, on Dec. 10, 2025. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BLAZ, Guam — Some of the first arrivals at this growing Marine base in the western Pacific will play Santa this month for youngsters on the islands of Guam, Tinian, Saipan and Rota.
About a dozen Marines worked like elves Wednesday inside a Camp Blaz warehouse designed to house explosive ordnance disposal gear. But instead of weapons and ammo they were carrying boxes and sacks of toys.
Toys for Tots, which began in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1947, has operated at Blaz since the base activated in October 2020, according to Sgt. Davis Williams, a training noncommissioned officer.
Only 150 Marines are assigned to Blaz so far, but approximately 4,000 more are expected from Okinawa as part of a 2012 agreement between the United States and Japan to reduce the American military footprint on the southern Japanese island.
U.S. Marines prepare to fill boxes with Christmas gifts for youngsters on Guam, Tinian, Saipan and Rota at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, Guam, Dec. 10, 2025. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
Planning for this year’s Toys for Tots campaign started in April and toy collection started in October, when the Marines provided collection boxes to local businesses through the Guam Chamber of Commerce, Williams said at the warehouse.
“We are very much excited to give back to the community,” he said.
Marines collected 8,296 toys from the businesses last week. They sorted the items by gender, age group and destination, he said.
Toys in boxes or bags at the warehouse on Wednesday include headphones, watches, art supplies, toy cars, action figures, balls, stuffed animals, sensory toys and science kits, Camp Blaz spokesman Maj Mark Crum said by email Thursday. A small bicycle stood apart.
Social service organizations are helping arrange venues for the toy handout, said Jean Chabanne, director of government and external affairs at Blaz.
“The toys will be given to the kids directly by the Marines,” she said.
Toys are bound for Saipan by ship and for Rota and Tinian by air freight, Chabanne said during a break from sorting boxes.
Another Marine helping with the toys, Sgt. Erwin Mariano, said he got a baseball and bat as a Christmas present as a kid on Guam from a Marine participating in Toys for Tots.
Mariano remembered that experience when he enlisted in the Marines, he said.
The data systems administrator also joined the campaign in 2023 at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., he said.
“We were on a fire truck in dress uniform,” he recalled of the day he handed out toys. “It was really great seeing the kids with smiles on their faces and taking pictures.”
