A Pittsburgh breakfast restaurant had planned to hold a Toys for Tots event alongside the far-right extremist group Proud Boys this week.
But the event, scheduled to be held at the Crack’d Egg restaurant in the Brentwood borough, was without permission of the Marine Corps-affiliated charity.
When Toys for Tots, started by a Marine reservist in 1947, found out about the unsanctioned event, it immediately distanced itself, a spokesman from the Toys for Tots organization confirmed.
“To be clear, the Proud Boys are in no way affiliated with the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation or the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, and their use of the TOYS FOR TOTS name and logo is unauthorized and violates federal and state trademark laws,” Ted Silvester, a retired Marine colonel and spokesman for Toys for Tots, told Marine Corps times in an email.
The Proud Boys are a male-only organization of self-proclaimed “western chauvinists,” according to the Southern Law Poverty Center racial justice group, most recently associated with stabbings in Washington, D.C., during a rally supporting President Donald Trump.
The Pittsburgh chapter of the Proud Boys has not responded to requests from Marine Corps Times for comment.
The drive was scheduled to take place at the Crack’d Egg restaurant, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October but has continued to operate, and has been involved in lawsuits at both the state and federal level over its refusal to follow state-issued COVID-19 guidance, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Kimberly Waigand, the store’s owner, agreed to host the toy drive without knowing that the Proud Boys were involved, she told Marine Corps Times on Tuesday, despite its name appearing on the picture posted to Facebook.
The owner also did not know initially that the Toys for Tots Foundation had not approved the event, she said in the phone call.
“When I found out what was going on on social media, that they used the logo and it wasn’t official I immediately took the post down,” Waigand said.
The restaurant did collect a small batch of toys before the word spread that it was canceled and has reached out to Toys for Tots in an attempt to distribute them, she added.
“I didn’t know Toys for Tots was an official trademark,” Waigand said. “I did it for the kids, that’s it, whether it was the Proud Boys or whatever.”
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The Proud Boys also made waves at a Toys for Tots event in California in early December.
A recent video from a Toys for Tots event in Placerville, California, went viral after showing the “Hangtown Proud Boys” donating toys at the drive, then posing next to a police car holding up “a hand gesture purportedly connected to the white power movement,” according to the Mountain Democrat.
“To us it just means OK. It has nothing to do with white supremacy,” Patrick, president of the Hangtown Proud Boys who asked his last name not to be used. told the outlet. “We are just a patriotic group of men that are like-minded. We are a drinking club and that is about it. We are not a gang. We are not a political organization at all either. We have members of every race. We have gay members. The only thing is you have to be born a male.”
“To be clear, neither the City of Placerville nor the Placerville Police Department invited, associated with or supports this organization,” the police department said on their Facebook page.
The Toys for Tots Foundation was started in 1991 to run the annual drives, and has since distributed toys to 265 million children during the holiday season, Silvester said.
“The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is the rightful owner of the name and logo ‘Toys for Tots,’ which is duly registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,” he added.
“TOYS FOR TOTS is an official activity of the U.S. Marine Corps,” Silvester said in the statement.
“As such, we will not knowingly or wrongfully participate in or sanction any conduct that involves actively advocating supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes, including those that advance, encourage, or advocate illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex (including gender identity), religion, ethnicity, national origin, or sexual orientation or those that advance, encourage, or advocate the use of force, violence, or criminal activity, or otherwise advance efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights.”
The Corps is no stranger to extremism in its ranks or veteran community.
In October two Marine veterans were arrested in a plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over their view that she violated the constitution while in office.
In September Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said the Corps needed to be “ruthless in rooting out” all traces of racism in the ranks.
“When you find it, you got to separate it like a cancer quickly because it clearly will spread,” Berger said at the Defense One online expo.
