A Marine with a heart for children

Curtis Griffith knows what it’s like to grow up in a single-parent household, so when he was asked to oversee the Toys for Tots effort in the Shoals, he accepted it as a challenge. 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t faced challenges before, both as a young boy growing up and as a U.S. Marine serving his country.  

Griffith said he lost his father to cancer when he was 6 years old.  

That left his mother to raise Griffith and his three older sisters in southwest Pennsylvania. They lived in the same house his father built and moved into when he was 6 months old. 

“My mother worked two full-time jobs to keep a roof over our head,” Griffith said. “My mother worked from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.” 

Griffith has been recognized by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, as the June “Veteran of the Month.”  

“Our veterans have a unique way of turning hardship into opportunities,” the senator said in a news release. “No one displays that better than Sgt. Curt Griffith of Florence, Alabama.” 

Griffith enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1973 and retired in 1993 as a gunnery sergeant. 

He and his wife ended up in Florence when the Marine Corps sent him to the Shoals to run the local recruiting office. The office served Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties, and Lawrence and Franklin counties in Tennessee. 

“I recruited 108 Marines,” Griffith said. 

He and his family liked the area and decided to remain in the Shoals after he left the Marines. 

Griffith said he joined the Marines because he needed “some male guidance.” 

“Not that I was bad or anything,” he said. “I just did not have any male leadership. When you join the Marine Corps, you get a lot of that male leadership.” 

Griffith was involved in the formation of the Marine Corps League Cpl. Matthew D Conley Detachment #1477 and since 2021, he’s led the Marine Corps League’s Toys for Tots program.  

Barbara and Curtis Griffith are shown with toys that were
collected during the annual Marine Corps League Cpl Mattew
D. Conley Detachment #1477’s annual Toys for Tots drive. Griffith
expanded the toy drive to include Franklin, Winston and Marion
counties in 2022. [DAN BUSEY/TIMESDAILY]

“Thanks to Curt’s leadership, the program has expanded to five counties in northeast Alabama: Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Winston, and Marion,” according to the senator’s news release. “He works around the clock each year to help remind children they are not alone.” 

Griffith said growing up in a single-parent household and his service in the Marine Corps helped form a desire to continue serving his community. 

While there often weren’t many toys around the tree at Christmas, Griffith said his mother always made sure they had a turkey. 

“I saw how much those kids enjoyed receiving those toys,” Griffith said.