I realize Nashville Star is a "talent" contest.. but I wanted to share this little story about Dustin Wilkes....



http://www.marforres.usmc.mil/HQ/W3Proj/Ar..._at_a_time.html

NAVAL AIR STATION, Atlanta – With only weeks until Christmas, Santa’s little helpers scurried around the large warehouse sorting toys and making sure all was in order for the “big night.” Amongst the hustle and bustle of the day, one of these workers noticed a small boy, clothes all tattered and worn, peering through a window with wonder and amazement at all the toys. The helper couldn’t help but wonder if this child would even receive any toys on Christmas morning.

In the months that followed, Santa’s friend, a United States Marine working for Toys For Tots, couldn’t forget that small boy and decided to write a song to help him and other kids like him.

“I wrote it about 3 months after Christmas,” said Cpl. Dustin L. Wilkes, flight equipment technician, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773, Marine Aircraft Group 42.

In the song “One Toy at a Time,” Wilkes references Toys for Tots several times and how they help by giving toys to needy children. While still in it’s early stages, Wilkes decided to contact the Toys for Tots foundation and play it for them.

“I called up the Toys for Tots coordinator and played the song for her on my guitar. She loved it,” said Wilkes.

Soon afterward Wilkes was flown to California to record “One Toy at a Time” and it became the theme song for the 2003 Marine Forces Reserve Toys For Tots campaign.

“All the proceeds from the sale of the CD’s will go to buy a toy for Toys For Tots,” said Wilkes, who sells copies of the song at different events he plays at around the Atlanta area, including
opening for T. Graham Brown and playing at the capital for the governor of Georgia.

He has also made appearances on several local television and radio shows.


“By putting the song out there with the message of music, it will hopefully bring more awareness for this charity,” said Wilkes. “We’re selling many copies at all the events we go to, but we are still having problems meeting our goals.”

Cpl. Dustin Wilkes performs national Toys for Tots song

Not too long ago, Dustin Wilkes was performing with the Jackson County Comprehensive High School Chorus, but in the past few months, the 23-year-old’s venues have broadened to include TV spots on Good Day Atlanta and 11 Alive News and radio interviews on WNGC 106.1, Eagle 106.7 with Rhubarb Jones, and the Bandy and Baily in the Morning show on Kicks 101.5.
Now a corporal in the United States Marine Corps, Cpl. Wilkes is also an aspiring singer/songwriter with a 10-song CD to his credit who has been selected to perform his original single,“One Toy at a Time,” as the national Toys for Tots song this holiday season. The single was released in mid-November and since then, Cpl. Wilkes has made an appearance on Good Day Atlanta and has been contacted by CNN News.
He’ll make another appearance on Good Day Atlanta on Fox 5 between 7 and 9 a.m. Friday, November 28, to promote the Toys for Tots toy drive, and will also open the Toys for Tots Holiday Event concert for T. Graham Brown Sunday, November 30, at the Classic Center, Athens.
Throughout the rest of November and into December, Cpl. Wilkes will make a number of other appearances, including the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame Awards, to promote awareness of the Toys for Tots mission and to perform “One Toy at a Time.” Proceeds made by the CD single/album sales will benefit the Toys for Tots campaign.
TOYS FOR TOTS PROGRAM
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program was established in 1947 and expanded nationwide in 1948; it is an official activity of the U.S. Marine Corps, and is a collection and distribution program for toys for needy children at Christmas. Between 1947 to 2002, U.S. Marines distributed over 298 million toys to over 145 million needy children. Toys for Tots campaigns are conducted between October and December each year in more than 450 communities across the nation.
Cpl. Wilkes said that the Marines, both active and reservists, who work behind the scenes to make Toys for Tots happen each year are “unsung heroes.”
“They do such an important job and nobody sees it,” he said of the Marines and the civilian volunteers who work at the Toys for Tots warehouse in Marietta.
According to the album cover, the song “One Toy at a Time” was “inspired by a Toys for Tots volunteer experience.”
And it’s true, Cpl. Wilkes said, relating how the song grew out of his experiences working at the warehouse last year.
“Around three weeks before Christmas, I got selected to be one of the Marines to help out with Toys for Tots,” he said. “You’re either a driver or a warehouse worker; you do what it takes to fit in the big scheme of things. You’re racing with the clock to get everything done before Christmas.”
Cpl. Wilkes described the warehouse as looking more and more like “Santa’s workshop” as Christmas drew nearer. And toys were still coming in. One of the days he was working, he was called to the front lobby to pick up a load of toys being brought in.
“I bent down to pick up a box of toys, and as I stood up, I looked to my left — the whole wall was a wall of windows — and I saw a little boy, he was about 5 or 6, or that’s how he appeared to me,” Cpl. Wilkes recalled. “He had rough looking clothes and like he hadn’t had a bath, and he looked kind of homeless...The look on his face was really in awe of all the toys we had, like he’d never seen so many toys. It really stuck with me, made me realize what we were doing this for.”
Cpl. Wilkes said he hadn’t really had a charity that he had been involved in before because he felt it was important to really believe in what you supported.
“I started thinking, it’d be a really neat idea to write a song about something like that, ” he said. “I started humming and putting it together. I started writing a song about the charity, and it all came together about two to three months after that.”
Cpl. Wilkes told the Atlanta coordinator for Toys for Tots that he was going to write a song about the charity. Once it was completed, he called her and started singing the song over speaker phone.
“Once I got halfway through the chorus, I stopped,” he said. “She was crying. She liked the song. From there, the ideas were endless....this could be a promotional tool for Toys for Tots.”
The song underwent a number of revisions before it was ready for release with the help of Andrew Belling and H.D. Arends Productions in Hollywood, Calif., with a “pop-country feel.”
“We went out there and worked with a lot of different musicians, and within three and a half days we had recorded a lot of tracks and they gave me an hour and a half to record my final tracks,” Cpl. Wilkes. “I got on an airplane and came back here. Within three or four days, they had it mixed and we had a final copy of ‘One Toy at a Time.’”
Cpl. Wilkes said he really wants to stress that any time an album is bought, they know the money has bought a toy for a child.
“We’re trying to raise money to raise toys for the children,” he said. “So that’s what the song is used for.”
LOCAL TIES
Cpl. Wilkes has been in the Marines for four years and is currently stationed at Dobbins Air Force Base near Atlanta. He is the son of Luther Wilkes, Jefferson, and the late Vivian Wilkes.
Cpl. Wilkes has been singing and playing guitar since he was 11. In high school, he began writing songs and singing in the school chorus and church choir. At age 18, he studied voice and music theory at Brenau University, Gainesville, before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1999. After basic training at Parris Island, S.C., Cpl. Wilkes trained as a parachute rigger and served in several marine aviation units on both U.S. coasts and in Okinawa, Japan.
He returned to the east coast of the U.S. in 2002 and volunteered for the Toys for Tots program in Atlanta, which served as the inspiration for “One Toy at a Time.”
Locally, Cpl. Wilkes’ songs from the as yet unsigned 10-song CD will be played on WJJC radio out of Commerce, and “we’ve been getting tons of requests for it and Rhubarb Jones was asking about it,” Cpl. Wilkes said.
Cpl. Wilkes said he is looking for local support.
“I really want the support from my hometown,” he said. “This project is important for anyone who has kids.”
Cpl. Wilkes said he aspires to be a country singer in his “next job,” and is looking forward to opening the concert for T. Graham Brown, another singer with local ties.
“That’s a very big deal,” he said. “It’s gonna be a good show. I’ll have the album (‘One Toy at a Time’) for sale and I will sign every one until I run out of copies or run out of ink. I will sign every one of them.”
For more information on Toys for Tots, including area drop sites, and to order “One Toy at a Time,” visit www.toys4totsatlanta.com. The Toys for Tots warehouse phone is (770) 919-1872. To contact Cpl. Wilkes, email him at dustinwilkes@hotmail.com.

“All those little girls, all those little boys, it’s for all those kids at Christmas time who aren’t gonna get toys.
Mend those broken dreams, of all those families,
We can make this world a better place,
One toy at a time.”
— From “One Toy at a Time,” written
and performed by Cpl. Dustin Wilkes, USMC










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