This website is dedicated to the memory of TFT Parade Member Ed May
who created the first Parade website, with Jack Voss, in 1999.
This format was designed by Sharon Allen, and is now maintained by Jack Voss.
Copyright 2018. Chicagoland Toys For Tots Motorcycle Parade Org. All rights reserved.
THE CHICAGOLAND
TOYS FOR TOTS
MOTORCYCLE PARADE
Comments or questions about
The Parade or this website?
Ask Jack at jack@jackvoss.com
The 42nd Annual Chicagoland
Toys For Tots Motorcycle Parade
Sunday, December 1, 2019
THAT'S "AMINAL", NOT ANIMAL
Jack Voss and Ed at The Woods in 2001
Aminal confers with current Board members
Aminal, Puppy, Thor, Namu, Princess, and Mark-off planned the first TFT Parade. On December 13, 1978, Thor, Puppy and Aminal left from Fantasy Choppers on 2532 W. 63rd Street and ended at the Glenview Naval Air Station. There was only one motorcycle and a van half-filled with toys. Aminal originally was going to borrow a rigid-frame Triumph 250 but he couldn't get the bike started, so then he borrowed Puppy's Harley. The bike's chain broke, but to make it a true motorcycle parade, he had to get to the end. So he and Puppy, who was riding in the van, held each other's arms, and he was towed to the Naval Air Station.
Roy "Thor" Glen and Ed "Aminal" W. in 2015
The first Parade president, Ed Wisniewski, with the current president, Lester Fortier.
Toys for Tots Founder Ed "Aminal" Wisniewski in the 2013 parade.
Ed Wisniewski in the first parade in 1978.
On December 13, 1978, Ed "Aminal" Wisniewski organized some friends to provide Christmas presents to underprivileged children in Chicago. The first parade had three participants, one motorcycle, and a van half-full of toys. By 2003, the parade had 40,000 motorcyclists. By 2012, there were 70,000 and the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Parade is now the largest motorcycle parade in the world, providing tens of thousands of children with brand-new presents for Christmas.