Annual Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run & Toy Drive
Sunday, November 22, 2026 · 8 AM · 621 Blvd. · El Cajon, California
About this event
Thirty-two bikes turned out for the first one, in 2014. By 2018 it was 236 bikes, eleven hundred toys and more than seventeen thousand dollars, which is what happens when a retired Marine staff sergeant decides a toy run ought to go somewhere worth going.
Michael Harris conceived it, planned it and led it as a member of the El Cajon H.O.G. chapter, and rather than circling the city he pointed it at the coast: out of the dealership forecourt on El Cajon Boulevard, across inland San Diego County, and down to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which opens its gates to anyone carrying a new unwrapped toy. Sheryl Kerstiens at Del Mar and Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Cantu of the San Diego Toys for Tots campaign built the other half of it. Jeep clubs, four-wheel-drive clubs and adventure riders now come along behind.
The flag goes up before anything moves — an American flag hoisted between two Heartland Fire ladder trucks, the bikes rolling out beneath it behind El Cajon motor officers. At the Stretch Run Gate, uniformed Marines lift the toys off the bikes while the 1st Marine Division Band plays.
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