Large caravans of specialty vehicles, motorcycles, cars and trucks - each driver bringing new toys - will converge Sunday on Paramount's Kings Island as part of the kickoff of the Marine Corps Reserve's annual Toys for Tots campaign.

"To participate in this cruise, it costs a toy per person," said Tom Keen, co-owner of Keen Parts of Miamitown and an organizer of the cruise. "This event has turned into their major kickoff event for the season."

Cruises will begin Sunday from various locations, including the World Peace Bell in Newport and the Mulberry Kroger, 1093 Ohio 28 Bypass in Miami Township, Clermont County. Departure begins at 11:30 a.m. from those sites.

The drives will all end at Kings Island about 12:30 p.m. Up to 2,000 participants donating toys will also receive passes to Kings Island for Sunday.

At nearby Aces and Eights, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership, a $50,000-plus custom-made Orange County Chopper motorcycle will be raffled. Tickets are $25 each or five for $100. The drawing will be at 4:30 p.m. at the dealership. The motorcycle was sponsored by Four Sands Industries specialty auto parts in Mason and Keen Parts.

"All the toys from both events and the money that's (raised) will be given to the Toys for Tots program," Keen said. "The only thing we care about is bringing us some toys for the kids.''

The cruise is in its fourth year, but the raffle is a new fund-raiser this year, Keen said.

"If this thing goes the way it appears, we're going to give the Marines in the neighborhood of $25,000 cash, plus the toys," Keen said.

The Toys for Tots program will distribute 46,000 toys to about 26,000 needy children in the Greater Cincinnati region, said Marine Corps Reserve Chief Warrant Officer Peter Dewing.

The cruise is Toys for Tots' largest event, followed by a collection drive at a Cincinnati Bengals game.

To purchase tickets for the motorcycle raffle, call (513) 459-1777.

Milford night at Mighty Ducks

Milford Community night with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks hockey team will be 7:35 p.m. Nov. 13 at Cincinnati Gardens.

The event is sponsored by Milford High School marketing education students through their Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) chapter.

The Mighty Ducks are scheduled to play the Manitoba Moose. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to The Hands giving-tree project. The giving-tree effort collects and distributes Christmas gifts for needy children in Clermont County through the Hillcrest Community Services and through the DECA chapter.

Ed Pregitzer, marketing education instructor, said DECA is a nonprofit youth club for high school students who are pursuing careers in marketing, sales, management or entrepreneurship. He said the Milford marketing education program is a satellite program of the Live Oaks Career Development Campus, which is part of the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development District.

VOLUNTEERS: Alum's advice

Before leaving for Prague, Czech Republic, former Bethany School student Veena Srinivasa stopped by to speak to seventh- and eighth-graders.

Srinivasa, who completed the eighth grade at the Glendale school in 1996, passed on to students advice about the importance of volunteering and following their dreams.

Srinivasa is now in Prague, studying women's issues in a post-communist society. She will be there for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship.

The scholarship program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program started after World War II and was proposed by Sen. J. William Fulbright as a much-needed way to promote "mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."

Srinivasa, 22, is a 2004 graduate of Brown University in Providence, R.I., with degrees in public policy and sociology.

While at Bethany, she played basketball and traveled with the International School to School Exchange Program. She later graduated fromUrsuline Academy in Blue Ash.

In competing for the Fulbright scholarship, Srinivasa had to write a proposal for the research she was interested in conducting and go through several interviews. She won the scholarship in the spring and left for Prague last month.

"She is really enjoying the study in Prague,'' said Srinivasa's brother Vijay, a student at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo.

Srinivasa is the daughter of Mandyam and Padma Srinivasa of Evendale.