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Speaker 1: From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.

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Speaker 1: Each and every week. Right here, we come together, we

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Speaker 1: talk about all the topics important to you and the

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Speaker 1: place where you live. Wellk, you had a great Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: with your loved ones. Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Davis. Games are nothing new, of course, over

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Speaker 1: at the Massachusetts State Lottery they have many of those,

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Speaker 1: but this time of year, the Lottery is also focused

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Speaker 1: on making sure kids all over the state can have

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Speaker 1: not just games, but plushies and all sorts of other

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Speaker 1: toys to enjoy for the holidays. This year marks their

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Speaker 1: tenth annual Holiday Toy Drive. It is underway right now,

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Speaker 1: but there's not a lot of time to get it done.

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Speaker 1: Here with all the info on the drive is Rachel Guera.

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Speaker 1: She is the deputy director of Communications at the Lottery. Rachel,

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Speaker 1: it's great to have you on the show, and let's

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Speaker 1: just jump right in. Tell us more about the drive.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, so, that's a great question. So we host

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Speaker 2: our annual holiday Toy Drive as part of an awareness

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Speaker 2: campaign we do every year around the holidays to remind

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Speaker 2: people that lottery tickets and products are not appropriate gifts

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Speaker 2: for children and young teens, so anyone under the age

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Speaker 2: of eighteen. So in order to do that, we're trying

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Speaker 2: to encourage our players, employees, and really just anyone who

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Speaker 2: wants to be part of this to come to the

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Speaker 2: Lottery headquarters or one of our six claim centers and

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Speaker 2: to bring an age appropriate gift instead of bringing any

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Speaker 2: Lottery products to their holiday parties or gatherings.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, scratch tickets can be fun, Like I love getting

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Speaker 1: some in my stocking. There's nothing wrong with that, but again,

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Speaker 1: I am of a certain age where you know it's

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Speaker 1: legal for me to do so. How often do you

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Speaker 1: think that people are buying scratch tickets or keynot tickets

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Speaker 1: or whatever for kids?

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Speaker 2: Really at the Lottery, our goal is just to remind

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Speaker 2: people that these aren't appropriate gifts for anyone under the

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Speaker 2: age of eighteen. And as part of that, in our

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Speaker 2: holiday awareness campaign, we do partner with the Department of

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Speaker 2: Public Health here in Massachusetts the Office of Problem Gambling

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Speaker 2: Services as part of their Give Joy Not Risk holiday

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Speaker 2: awareness campaign to really keep getting the messaging out there.

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Speaker 2: So at least in terms of where we sell our products,

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Speaker 2: we have messaging on all of our customer facing displays,

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Speaker 2: especially around the holidays, reminding people to maybe think twice

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Speaker 2: before they make that purchase and instead to participate in

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Speaker 2: our toy drive instead.

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Speaker 1: Oh for sure, I think some people might say, well,

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Speaker 1: what's the harm? Right, Like, why would I care if

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Speaker 1: my kid scratches off some scratch tickets or plays a

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Speaker 1: few lottery tickets. What is the response to that?

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Speaker 2: You know? The response is that, one, it's not allowed.

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Speaker 2: That's not eligible for any of our products. So there's

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Speaker 2: that it's strictly against our rules. But also we just

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Speaker 2: don't want to cause any undue risk to anyone by

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Speaker 2: introducing them to our products before they are legally able

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Speaker 2: to play and before they kind of have a full

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Speaker 2: understanding of what our products do and the fund it

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Speaker 2: can provide for people. But we just don't want people

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Speaker 2: to get started or too early and risk any future complications.

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Speaker 1: Completely understood, all right, So let's talk about the toys,

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Speaker 1: the actual age appropriate toys. Who is going to be

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Speaker 1: the beneficiary of these toys once they're all collected?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. So we're doing this in partnership with

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Speaker 2: the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots, So all of

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Speaker 2: our toys gathered from various donations are going to be

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Speaker 2: dropped off to US Marine Toys for Tots distribution centers,

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Speaker 2: or they will also go to some local regional efforts.

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Speaker 2: So our new Bedford office, they're partnering with the new

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Speaker 2: Bedford Firefighters Union for their toy drive to drop off

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Speaker 2: the toy so that they collect there so they can

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Speaker 2: get to local families in that region as well.

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Speaker 1: And you have so many great customers and obviously, I

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Speaker 1: mean people are winning every day in the Mass lottery,

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Speaker 1: but it seems like to me there's got to be

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Speaker 1: a few special people who make this toy drive what it.

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Speaker 2: Is absolutely so you know, this is just a really

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Speaker 2: great example of that. Every year we do have a

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Speaker 2: past Grand Prize winners family come in to the Dorchester

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Speaker 2: headquarters specifically for the toy drive to donate an extremely

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Speaker 2: generous amount of gifts that we're able to add into

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Speaker 2: our whole distribution for this toy drive, and so they

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Speaker 2: are able to use the winnings from that previous win

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Speaker 2: in order to do this. And at least right now

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Speaker 2: they filled up our two boxes of donation, so we

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Speaker 2: took those toys out for now so we have some

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Speaker 2: space from some more donations to come in.

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Speaker 1: That is amazing, And honestly, you know you don't have

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Speaker 1: to be giving two boxes worth of toys, but anything

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Speaker 1: you can bring will help. But we're talking, like you said,

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Speaker 1: age appropriate, not use toys that your kid just doesn't

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Speaker 1: want to get rid of. We're talking new unwrapped toys, correct.

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Speaker 2: Correct. And also something to keep in mind, these are

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Speaker 2: for young children and teens, so kind of keep that

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Speaker 2: in mind. We don't want too much for only the

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Speaker 2: really little kids. We want to have something in there

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Speaker 2: for the young teens to be able to enjoy as well.

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Speaker 2: So some creative thinking is helpful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, And I'm sure books and board games, I

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Speaker 1: mean there's all sorts of stuff you can find these days.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and sports equipment. We really want to encoura it's

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Speaker 2: people to in kids to get out there and have

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Speaker 2: some fun.

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Speaker 1: So people can drop these off at your headquarters in

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Speaker 1: Dorchester and at your prize claim centers around the commonwealth.

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Speaker 1: And again this is not just an Eastern Massachusetts thing.

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Speaker 1: This is all over the state, correct, correct.

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Speaker 2: So we have claim centers in Braintree, Lawrence, New Bedford,

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Speaker 2: West Springfield, and Worcester. So anyone can come during our

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Speaker 2: regular hours, so we're open typically Monday through Friday eight

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Speaker 2: forty five to four thirty pm. This holiday week for Thanksgiving,

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Speaker 2: our claim centers will be closing Tomorrow at two pm

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Speaker 2: and reopen Friday at eight forty five am, So keep

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Speaker 2: that in mind for any of your donations. But we're

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Speaker 2: running this through December tenth, so really, anyone who has

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Speaker 2: an interest in coming by and dropping off a donation,

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Speaker 2: we are so appreciative. I know for myself, I have

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Speaker 2: to go out and get my donation as well for

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Speaker 2: this worthy cause.

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Speaker 1: All right. If people want to find out more about

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Speaker 1: the toy drive, or if they just want to find

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Speaker 1: out more about what's happening at the lottery, where can

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Speaker 1: they get a hold of you?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely they can visit us at Masslottery dot com, or

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Speaker 2: they can find us on social media, so we're on Facebook,

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Speaker 2: x or Twitter, YouTube, Instagram anywhere. There they can definitely

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Speaker 2: find out about all the ongoings happening at the lottery.

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Speaker 1: All right, Rachel, good information, great cause, the Mass Lottery

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Speaker 1: Holiday toy Drive. Thank you so much for coming on

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Speaker 1: to talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Nicole.

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Speaker 1: Have a safe and healthy Weekend. Join us again next

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Speaker 1: week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis

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Speaker 1: from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio