Joseph Earley, 18, of 6 Roseland Ave. in Bristol, is pictured gathering toys donated from his neighborhood toy drive on Saturday. Earley started the drive when he was 15 years old during the Covid winter of 2020, and it has been going strong now for four years.

Earley said he started the drive by distributing fliers to his neighbor’s mailboxes, a tradition his father carried on this year as the charitable young man began college at Catholic University in Washington D.C. this year.

The donated toys are delivered to Cardi’s in Seekonk for their Toys for Tots campaign.

“I just thought it was a good way to give back to the community,” Earley said of his motivation for starting the drive. “I’m definitely more fortunate than most and so are a lot of my neighbors, so I thought it was a good thing to give back to people who were less fortunate and help them with Christmas and getting toys to kids in less fortunate homes. I think it’s really important.”