When Speedway first took part in the Salvation Army’s ‘Angel Tree’ program, they bought gifts for 125 kids.
“We thought that was huge,” said Teri Smith with Speedway. “So to see it kind of morph and pick up around the office as we’ve grown — we were able to do 716 kids this year.”
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On Friday, employees and Salvation Army volunteers unloaded three box trucks full of presents and bicycles that were collected from four Speedway office locations.
“There’s a lot of kids in the area that need this kind of help, and we’re just so excited to be a part of that,” she said.
Springfield Salvation Army Director of Development Ryan Ray said he believes it’s the largest donation in Toy Drive history — and it came at the perfect time.
Ray said the Salvation Army has 300 more children who will need presents this year as compared to last year — 2,300 Clark County kids in total.
“This is one of the best parts of our community — is the giving piece, the coming together,” Ray said. “We realize a lot of these kids don’t get much throughout the year. A lot of these kids will only get hand-me-down stuff and used stuff is OK at Christmas — it’s not for us.”
After the donations were dropped off at the Toy Shop Salvation Army volunteers, including some from Gordon Food Service, were tasked with sorting through them — and even adding in some extra goodies.
Clark County families sign up to be adopted as part of the ‘Angel Tree’ program and their kids’ names are printed on angels that are distributed to various locations.
Someone can choose to buy gifts for one kid — or as many as they would like.
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Each family is assigned a number and each child in the family is assigned their own letter.
The gifts are then placed in the proper spot in the Toy Shop that corresponds with the correct number so the family can find them easily on Christmas morning.
Ray said every bag donated matters — and no child will walk away on Christmas empty-handed.
“We want to make sure they get new stuff, they get good stuff and their Christmas morning is unlike any other morning throughout their year,” Ray said. “We’re talking 2,300 kids that Christmas morning will be very, very happy because of this community.”
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