Remember your favorite toy growing up? The one you couldn't get enough of even if you played with it for hours every day?

Penn State students have the chance to bring that same joy they had to needy children this holiday season through the annual donation program Toys for Tots organized by the Office of Residence Life.

Toy donations will be collected until Dec. 8.

The collected toys will be given to Centre County children during the holiday season.

Toys For Tots is a nationwide program organized by the U.S. Marine Corps, which has been distributing toys since 1947.

The Marine detachment for Centre County has participated in the program for 19 years, according to a press release from Gene Weller, the detachment's local community coordinator and Centre County's Toys For Tots campaign organizer.

Last year, the detachment collected about 12,225 toys for distribution from State College area businesses, residents and from several different groups at Penn State.

Most donations are toys that are intended for children between the ages of four and nine.

Special emphasis for donations is also placed on finding gifts for infants and teenagers, according to the press release.

The Office of Residence Life collected 400 to 500 toys for donation last year, said Diana Moore, an office manager for the Office of Residence Life, which is in charge of coordinating the program in East Halls.

Heather Cowher, a staff assistant who also helps organize the donations annually, said that the students are the ones who make the program a success.

'We just get the information out there," Cowher said. "If it wasn't for the students, it wouldn't happen."

Moore said that the large amount of student interest motivated her to continue helping the program succeed this year.

"I almost wasn't going to do it this year," she said. "A lot of students came in and asked about the program."

After the donations have been made, local Marines will pick up the donated toys and take them to the Penn Stater Conference Center at Innovation Park for gift-wrapping.

Besides donating gifts, volunteers also help with wrapping the donated presents.

Last year, between 800 and 900 people helped wrap toys, according to the press release.

Students interested in donating should bring a new, unwrapped gifts to 134 Johnston Commons in East Halls no later than Dec. 8, to the Penn State men's basketball game this Saturday or the Penn State women's basketball game on Sunday.