Last week, over 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, North Carolina took part in the second annual All-American Presents from Paratroopers toy drive (A2P2), donating anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 toys to local children in need.
The event was held in partnership with the Travis Mills Foundation, an organization that treats families of wounded military veterans to vacation getaways in Maine.
By donating a toy, each paratrooper was automatically entered into a special raffle to participate in a parachute jump with a member of the Chilean military. Roughly 600 of the paratroopers won the prize, earning a special foreign patch for their uniforms for their effort.
The foundation plans to give the toys to different organizations throughout the state including the Fort Bragg USO, the North Carolina Children’s Home Society, the Armed Services YMCA, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and the Fayetteville Urban Ministry.
To qualify for the special jump, soldiers had to be assigned to an airborne unit and on active jump status, though active officers in the North Carolina National Guard and Army Reserve were also eligible to join.
The paratroopers did helicopter jumps for one day and cargo plane jumps for another into two designated drop zones.