Global toy retailer Toys ‘R’ Us is launching its seventh-annual fundraising campaign to benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, as well as its second year of partnership with NBA champ Shaquille O’Neal, in an effort to bring the holidays to more than 14.1 million US kids in need.

Beginning October 31, O’Neal will step into the role of Shaq-A-Claus to encourage shoppers to donate new, unwrapped toys and cash in Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us stores nationwide and online at Toysrus.com/ToysforTots.

Collected toys will be distributed to children in the communities where they are donated. Customers can also make monetary donations at Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us stores nationwide through Christmas Eve.

The company has also developed an interactive microsite for online visitors at Toysrus.com/ToysforTots, where they’ll be greeted by a video message from Shaq-A-Claus. Monetary donations also will be accepted through the online microsite. The Toys’R’Us Facebook fan page will also feature personal messages from O’Neal dressed as Shaq-A-Claus as well as exclusive video clips.

As the largest retail partner for Toys for Tots, Toys’R’Us has raised more than US$20 million and has collected 2.7 million toys since the partnership began in 2004. Newest stats have revealed that one in five US residents under 18 are currently living below the poverty line.