Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics packs plane with toys for kids in need

The students and staff of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics are giving Santa a run for his money.

For the second year in a row, PIA challenged its students and staff to fill a King Air plane (a utility aircraft produced by Beechcraft) from nose to tail with toys to support the Toys for Tots Foundation.

At noon on Friday, members of the Allegheny Valley Marine Corps League arrived to unpack the plane and begin the process of distributing the toys to needy area families and children.

“We have a very tight-knit community at PIA across all four of our campuses, so that’s why we get a lot of participation on this,” said Derek Vrabel, PIA student services coordinator. “Nearly a third of our student population donated at least one toy, and then you had staff and all of our teachers pitching in toys, too.

“When we can get behind a good cause and put toys in front of kids on Christmas morning, it’s a no-brainer. We plan on doing it long into the future.”

The plane had every kind of toy imaginable – from scooters to dolls as well as an abundance of puzzles and games.

“The toys cover all age groups from infant/toddlers up to 9 or 10 years old,” said Andy Burch, Marine Detachment 827 Chaplain.

“It’s due to the generosity of the people (at PIA) and the Pittsburgh area that we’re able to do this,” Burch said. “We could not be more thankful for everybody’s support.”

Burch said the toys would be loaded into trucks Friday night and the trucks would leave first thing Saturday morning.