As they do every year for the holidays, Gary Brown and the management at Brown’s Automotive Group in Patchogue put out a call recently to all employees to help the less fortunate.
Among those who responded to the posters about the dealership was John King of Patchogue, a car dealer himself who says he buy his cars from Brown’s.
King recruited his son, also John, a 5th grader at Canaan Elementary School. The younger King didn’t need any convincing, jumping at the chance to help — as he often does, his dad said.
The 10-year-old said he picked out Matchbox cars, puzzles, and more to toss onto the back of a Ram 1500 pickup truck for delivery to the Boys & Girls Club of the Bellport Area on Friday..
“He just wasn’t sure about how to pick out the girls toys,” his dad laughed.
Hundreds of brand-new toys, big and small, then got driven to Bellport.
Brown’s, which first opened in Bellport Village before moving to Route 112 in Patchogue — its current location — opened in 1917 and is celebrating its centennial next year.
Gary Brown, the dealership’s president, said each year his 120 employees band together for a toy drive, he said during a sendoff reception for the toys Friday in the main showroom.
“These past few years we’ve been helping out the Boys & Girls Club,” he said.
Related: Brown’s Automotive is about to send 12 employees to college
Top: The team at Brown’s on Friday before driving donated toys to Bellport.
