Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Since Christmas is approaching, the Gatesville Senior Center has started accepting donations for its second annual toy drive.
The toy drive is held each year for students of the local Head Start.
Head Start is a comprehensive child development program for low-income families designed to meet the needs of children between the ages of three and five, including children with disabilities.
Dietary Supervisor Camilla Edge said, “We know it’s harder for single household and low-income families, and Head Start is also our sister company, so we are just trying to help those kids out.”
There will be 35 students in total who will receive gifts from the toy drive including 17 girls and 15 boys.
“We try to make the toys equal when sorting through them,” Edge said. “If we have a bigger toy, we make sure to match them up the same.”
Anything for a boy or girl can be donated, such as baby dolls, basketballs, toy trucks, stuffed animals, and books, as well as monetary donations.
The Senior Center will have a box in front of its building for donations to be placed inside.
To date, only 10 toys have been donated out of the Senior Center’s goal of 70 toys total.
“Last year the seniors made the toy drive happen and it was a success,” Edge said. The congregation of the Senior Center will buy and donate gifts as well as give monetary donations to assist with the toy drive.
“We are hoping that will we get people on the outside to come in and bring toys, because our seniors do help us a lot and they’re on a fixed income too,” Edge said.
The hope is to give each child two gifts a piece.
“Last year we got a lot of feedback, and it really helped the parents out,” Edge said. “We just know that those kids will not get a lot of gifts and we want to make their Christmas a good one.”
Head Start will hold its Christmas party for its students on Friday, Dec. 15, where they will receive the gifts.
“The kids will get their gifts at the Christmas party and take them home to open from Santa,” Edge said.
“It really makes a difference to some of these kids’ lives,” Edge said. “We want to let them have the same joy as other households.”
The toy drive began on Friday, Dec. 1 and will stop accepting donations on Wednesday, Dec. 13.
For more information, contact the Senior Center Director Pam Rudolph at 254-865-8234.
The Gatesville Senior Center is located at 208 Lutterloh Avenue.
