TROY, Mich. — Thousands of people gathered at the Somerset Collection mall on Saturday with toys in hand in hopes of getting a glimpse of Michigan football player Blake Corum and a handful of his teammates.

The demand to donate to Corum's BCS Toy Drive was so high, that the line wrapped around the interior of a vast mall that spans three levels.

According to some who ran the event with Champions Circle, the estimated amount of people went well over 5,000.

"This is what community is about," Corum said. "Today was the definition of community. It wasn't myself, it wasn't the rest of my teammates, it was everyone coming together for a bigger cause."

While Corum was hoping, and expecting, a big turnout, even what he witnessed unfold on Saturday far exceeded his wildest expectations.

With the estimated amount of toys being donated is expected to fill numerous box trucks, Corum has identified where he will be sending the donations too, which includes the state of Michigan as well as going international.

"I was expecting a big turnout but I didn't think it was going to be this big," Corum said. "This is like the whole state of Michigan came out here. I kind of feel like you're in the Big House. That's what it felt like, that many people came out. I believe they said we had as many as 20-25,000 toys, which is amazing.

"Some of the toys will go to Detroit Rescue Ministries and, like I said, Mike and Junior, they're from Haiti, we'll send some to Haiti as well."

In a funny turn of events, Somerset was also hosting an event where people could meet and take a picture with Santa Claus right across from where Corum's event was taking place.

As one could imagine, Santa was not the hot commodity on this day, the Wolverines were instead.

"I hope Santa doesn't have any beef with me that we had more people at this event than his," Corum joked.

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