Sitting in the driver’s seat of a U-Haul van, Lance Corporal Elewis Martinez pulled two handwritten letters out of the front pocket of his camouflage jacket. One was a letter from 14-year-old Steven Rodriguez.

“I’m studying hard so my mom could stop crying because my dad does not find work and can not buy a pair of shoes or a jacket for my sister and me,” Rodriguez wrote. “I pray to God and to you to help us this Christmas to have a few pairs of shoes and coat for me an my sister.”

Within the next few weeks, Martinez plans to make a trip to Rodriguez’s house in Jamaica, Queens, to personally drop off what he asked for, plus a bag full of toys.

“I wasn’t the richest kid, but I didn’t have to worry about having clothes,” Martinez said as he drove from the New York Toys for Tots warehouse at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

Every year, the New York City Marines Toys for Tots program collects hundreds of thousands of toys for low-income city kids. The toys are corralled from shop and office drop-boxes and fundraising parties and brought to the warehouse for sorting.

The toys are usually distributed to kids by churches and other organizations that ask the Toys for Tots organizers for a certain number of toys for the appropriate age range.

But this year, the Marines are making individual house calls themselves as well.

I visited the Toys for Tots warehouse at Floyd Bennett Field earlier this month and spoke with some of the Marines there.