Sheriff collecting toys

The Lake County sheriff's office is collecting new and unwrapped toys through the U.S. Marine Corp's Toys for Tots program through Dec. 16. Collection locations are: Lake County Sheriff's Office, 25 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Waukegan; Lake County Courthouse (Court Security), 18 N. County St., Waukegan; Lake County Sheriff's Office, 1301 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville. Last year, residents and employees donated more than 1,000 toys, and organizers hope to collect 1,200 toys this year, Sheriff Mark Curran said in a news release. Ideas for preteens/teens include: sporting equipment, bags, balls; backpacks, cosmetics, purses, watch/wallet gift sets, bath gift sets, board games, radio control cars/trucks, hand-held electronics, skateboards/helmets, curling irons, hair straighteners and hair dryers. Toys for Tots prefers not to accept realistic looking weapons or gifts of food.