CLEARWATER, Fla. — As we look ahead to Thanksgiving and Black Friday this 2025, the holiday giving season really ramps up, and one Bay area teen is showing the way for others to do more community service while getting inspired by his dad’s own service.
Paxton Dulski, a senior at Clearwater’s Calvary Christian High School, has made it his passion project to organize Toys for Tots collection sites.
Paxton loves to spend a lot of time on the baseball diamond at Calvary Christian as one of the team leaders.
As with any teenager, his life is centered around activities like these.
But his passion is in volunteering.
“Like the opportunity to help others,” Paxton said. “So, I think I can use the Toys for Tots platform to like show the blessing that I have to others and to bless them.”
A run through of his days takes him from school to various locations where he has placed the Toys for Tots collection boxes, at least 10 of them.
He is in fact a National Ambassador for Toys for Tots, a nonprofit created at the behest of the Marine Corps in 1991.
As it states on their website, the basic mission of the Marine Toys for Tots Program is to collect new unwrapped toys and distribute those toys to economically disadvantaged children at Christmas.
And Paxton has been helping for years, starting first as a volunteer for the program.
He has a big reason and inspiration which drives his service to the community.
One of his deliveries is at Largo Police Department and City Hall.
“He is motivated, he is empathetic, he’s a giver,” said his father, Lt. Ryan Dulski. “This is a passion that he had.”
Those words of praise come from — you could say one of Paxton’s biggest inspirations — his father.
“That’s probably the best part of it, you literally have a child helping children and he’s learning from it at the same time,” said Lt. Dulski.
It is this year’s Toys for Tots theme — children helping children.
Paxton has been all over Pinellas County logging hundreds of hours to set up the toy collection boxes, from bingo nights at the neighborhood clubhouse to box set-ups at mom’s work.
All the while, dad said Paxton is maintaining a nearly 4.5 GPA, and he is also a leader for the baseball team.
“Those are time-intensive things, both studies and being a student athlete but to tag on volunteering and hundreds of hours of volunteering,” said. Lt. Dulski.
Paxton would say it is the service of his father, who also happens to be a Marine veteran, that he is trying to emulate.
He wants others to find their own inspiration.
“I just hope that they can make an impact too,” said Paxton. “Because like I said, I started out volunteering and that’s one of the biggest blessings that you can help others.”
As they say, it is much better to give than to get.
A motto we can all live by this holiday season.
Roy De Jesus
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