She had a full wish list this year with four kids of her own and five foster kids she took in this year, but she’s confident that because of the community’s generosity all of them will have a Merry Christmas.
PHOTO GALLERY: Springfield Rotary Club’s Party for Disabled Children
“It’s about the kids,” Carrillo said. “It’s their day, and they’re going to wake up and see their toys and their bikes that they wanted.”
Niyana Robinson, 7, told the News-Sun she made wishes to Santa for ‘OMG Dolls’ and ‘L.O.L Surprise!’ dolls.
The Salvation Army has been working all year to collect donations for the annual toy drive — even more was needed this year as the organization was gathering toys for 300 more kids compared to last year. It gave gifts to 2,300 children this year.
“I thank the community for giving back to needy families,” said Charity Stevens, of Springfield, who was picking up toys for a girl and a boy on Thursday. “It’s hard on some people not having a job — unemployed and I just think it’s a really good thing and a blessing,” she said.
The toy drive is possible because of donations from the community.
One of the biggest hauls this year came from the Highway Hiker’s Toy Run in October that drew more than 3,000 bikers and collected around $40,000 in toys and donations.
Another big donation came earlier this month when Speedway, LLC dropped off hundreds of pounds of toys through the Salvation Army’s ‘Angel Tree’ program.
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.
COMMUNITY NEWS: Springfield restaurant offers New Year’s Eve special
Someone can choose to buy gifts for one child — or as many as they would like.
Throughout the year, organizations have volunteered at the toy shop including employees from Gordon Food Service.
About 30 Miami View Elementary School students were on hand Thursday acting as ‘elves’ who helped distribute the toys to families and put them in their vehicles, which made the process much quicker.
Salvation Army Springfield Corps Development Director Ryan Ray said seeing the pure happiness on the faces of both the families receiving the gifts and the students passing them out — makes all of the long nights and early morning hours that go into planning the toy drive well worth it.
“This sort of symbolizes the best part of who we are,” he said. “I try to visualize these kids waking up Christmas morning to a new bike and a couple of really nice toys that I know that they’ll like — that is what drives us to do what we do in here.”
About half of the families on the Salvation Army’s list picked up their toys on Thursday, and the remainder will head to the toy shop on Friday.
800 — Clark County families receiving gifts
222 — bikes that were distributed
30 — volunteer ‘elves’ from Miami View Elementary that helped distribute
The Salvation Army spends all year collecting toys for the Toy Drive including from the Highway Hiker’s Toy Run and large donations from local companies like Speedway.
About the Author