Huge brightly wrapped boxes sit in every school in the Columbus Municipal School District, BankFirst and Cadence Bank locations and the Municipal Complex in Columbus, waiting for people to leave toys for the citywide annual toy drive.
The only problem is the boxes are staying pretty empty so far this year.
“We need as many toys as we can get,” said Community Relations Officer Rhonda Sanders with the Columbus Police Department. “Everything we get, we’re going to give to the kids.”
The toy drive began in earnest in November but jumpstarted in late October with CPD’s annual Haunted House, which raised about $7,000 for the toy drive. Sanders has already used that money to purchase bikes, which have been delivered and mostly assembled. But the funds have been depleted, and so far, people have not donated many other toys.
“We’ve got 130 bikes and very few toys,” Sanders said.
Last year, Sanders and CPD used the money from the Haunted House to buy toys, and that was in addition to the toys students and people in the community donated, she said. But she was scrambling to get the bikes because they were being purchased with the money coming in that November and December.
“We were on pins and needles trying to buy the bikes,” she said. “So (this year), I used the toy money to buy the bikes because the bikes are from New York.”
Buying the bikes first allowed her not only to have time for delivery, but gave her time to find volunteers to put them together. But now she’s short on toy donations and currently only has about $4,000 of the $7,000 she needs to purchase more.
“And we are hustling,” she said. “I call myself the toy hustler right now.”
She believes the toys will eventually arrive, she said. But to have time to go shopping with the money donated and wrap all the presents by Dec. 20 — when families will get them — all the money and toy donations have to be in by Dec. 15. She fears people will wait until the last minute to donate.
“It happens all the time,” she said. “People wait last-minute, and then they rush to bring (toys), and we are left scrambling. We are tight. We’re up all night trying to stuff the bags.”
To donate to the CPD toy drive, citizens can make monetary donations at the Municipal Complex or at any BankFirst or Cadence location accepting toys. Toys can be donated at the same locations or at any CMSD school. The toys will be distributed to families at the Trotter Convention Center downtown from 8 a.m. to noon on Dec. 20.
Contact Helpline
CPD isn’t the only organization short of gift donations for people in the community. Contact Helpline, which serves more than 130 elderly and disabled people in Lowndes County, is in need of gifts and money for its clients.
“We’re probably the only agency that targets the elderly,” Director Katrina Sunivelle said.
Contact Helpline has set up a Bells for Blessings tree in Walmart that it shares with other organizations. The tree holds bell-shaped ornaments listing gifts clients need – things like lap blankets and scarves the elderly clients will use throughout the year. Shoppers at Walmart can take a bell, purchase the items on it and leave them at the service desk where volunteers and employees of Contact Helpline will pick them up and deliver them to clients.
“Most people, when they think about Christmas, think about children,” Sunivelle said. “But … we have a lot of clients in their 80s and 90s, and a lot of their friends have passed on. … (That extra gift we give them) helps them with their everyday activities.”
Holiday donations of finances and gifts must be in by:
■ UNITED WAY OF LOWNDES COUNTY: Adopt a Family donations due today
■ SALVATION ARMY IN STARKVILLE: Angel Tree donations due Monday at 5 p.m. at the Salvation Army Family Store on Industrial Park Road.
■ SALVATION ARMY IN COLUMBUS: Angel Tree donations due Saturday at 7 p.m. at Leigh Mall. Late donations will be accepted at Salvation Army headquarters on Main Street through Dec. 20.
■ COLUMBUS CITYWIDE TOY DRIVE: Toys and donations due Dec. 15 by 5 p.m. Toys can be delivered to any Columbus Municipal School District school, BankFirst and Cadence Bank locations and the Columbus Municipal Complex.
■ CONTACT HELPLINE: Bells of Blessings due at Walmart Service Center Dec. 20. Contact Helpline will take donations and gifts for Christmas through Dec. 24.
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