MARYSVILLE — Soroptimist International of Marysville recently presented the Marysville Community Food Bank Toy Store program with $1,000 for this year’s holiday season.

Mike Ferri, who joined his wife Elaine in accepting in the $1,000 check from Marysville Soroptimist member Cha Monteith, explained that the Toy Store will apply a significant amount of these donated funds toward the challenging task of purchasing appropriate gift items for teenagers.

“The majority of toy donations that we receive are for younger children, and we absolutely welcome more of those,” Mike Ferri said. “The problem is that teenagers are tougher to shop for, because they don’t really want toys, so we have to come up with other suitable items for them.”

Ferri credited veteran volunteers of the Toy Store, such as Bonnie Ramsey and Rita Henry, with scouring the local Kmart, Fred Meyer, Target and other stores to collect donations and arrange buys of various items, which is especially essential since the Toy Store “starts from zero” and depends on donations for the bulk of its selection, which its volunteers then supplement to fill out the various age groups for both boys and girls.

“Last year, we bought movie tickets for teens and families, which went over really well, but I think that’s already been taken care of for this year,” Ferri said.

The Marysville Com-munity Food Bank Toy Store will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19, and Thursday, Dec. 20, at the former Dunn Lumber building.