The Delta Police Foundation put out the call and the people of Delta answered, with piles of plush new toys of every type to ensure a lot of children will have a brighter Christmas this year.
The foundation launched its Red and Blue Sock and Toy Drive a few weeks ago and has collected a bunch of both.
This is the first year for the campaign, which started when the foundation was approached by Amazon, which also contributed.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 12 and 13, volunteers and police were collecting boxes and pallets of toys that were to be delivered to the South Delta Food Bank, the food bank at Crossroads United Church and the Guru Nanak Food Bank.
“It’s over the moon,” Leslie Abramson, chair of the police foundation, said of the amount of donations of good quality toys. “There will be a lot of happy kids.”
She pointed out Amazon approached the foundation with the idea of having a Christmas toy drive. Other police departments also do toy drives.
The company already donates between one and three pallets of toys, food, and clothes per month that the foundation then forwards to local charities.
Abramson pointed out that other big companies such as Walmart, Global Container Terminals Canada, Your Dollar Store and More in Tsawwassen and Real Canadian Superstore in North Delta, have also chipped in while Rotary clubs in Delta had a friendly competition about who can collect the most socks.
They were helped a lot by the kids in Grade 4 at South Park Elementary who donated 600 pairs of new socks.
Both employees at Amazon, and the company, have contributed in a big way by filling six pallets with new toys, including electronics, such as gaming headsets for teens, from its various locations.
The toys will help brighten the day Dec. 20 at the South Delta Food Bank located at Lighthouse Church, when they’ll be given out during a Christmas barbecue.
Toys were collected from drop-off locations at community police offices around the city. The toy drive will happen next year as well, Abramson said.
“It’s grand. It’s been fabulous, so we’re just so grateful to be able to do this,” she said.
