NEWBERRY — Today is the first day of December which means Christmas is fast approaching, this also means it is time to donate toys to the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office Operation Santa Claus.
For anyone looking to donate a toy or two this year, Sheriff Lee Foster said the best place to do so is at the Sheriff’s Office, 520 Wilson Road, Newberry.
“We haven’t completely established the outlining areas, a couple of the plants are going to be doing it, but right now the best place is the Sheriff’s Office,” he said.
The City of Newberry Police Department, as well as the Whitmire Police Department will divert people to the Sheriff’s Office to donate.
“I don’t know about the Town of Prosperity, they usually did their own thing, they contacted us about going in together, and they’ve got a new chief. I have spoken to him, but I have not spoken to him about the Toy Drive,” Foster said.
In past years, a big contribution to Operation Santa Claus was the Community Choir’s annual Christmas concert, but that concert is no longer held.
“Losing the Community Choir, that hurts our community in many ways, hoping citizens will make that up,” Foster said.
There are a few other events that help generate toys for Operation Santa Claus. Annually, there is a motorcycle run from Chapin to the Shrine Club, and the toys brought from that are split between Boys Farm and the Sheriff’s Office.
“A new one this year is the City Tennis Center, in conjunction with the college, is going to have a tournament that will be taking toys for our drive. That is a new one and a nice one,” Foster said.
When donating this year, Foster requests that residents do not donate stuffed animals. He said they have an abundance of stuffed animals left over from last year, but they do not have an abundance of toys.
“We will also take gift card donations. A lot of people will come in with smaller kids, then they’ll have older siblings that are past the toy stage, so we always try to give something to them. We take gift cards, or we’ll take financial contributions and what we will take is take that financial contribution and we turn it into gift cards,” Foster said. “Then we will give a gift card to the older child, maybe 15-16 years old, and let them go to Walmart or Pee Dee Outfitters.”
Another good donation would be a bicycle, a toy that never goes out of style. On occasion, Foster said they have received a donation of a game system, although it is rare.
“We have had people donate things like PlayStations, X-Boxes, that is a tough decision who you are going to give that to. We look at the actual need of the person,” he said. “That’s kinda rare when somebody comes across with something like that.”
Books will also be accepted as donations.
A unique donation that Foster said they receive is from Crosspoint Church in Prosperity.
“This is pretty doggone neat, they have a ministry in which they provide pillows and pillowcases, and the pillowcases are embroidered with Bible verses, and sometimes nursery rhymes,” he said. “When they first brought those, I said wow, that’s very nice, and the work is very nice, but I said ‘all these toys in there, nobody is gonna worry about a pillow.’”
However, Foster was pleasantly surprised that they were indeed a popular item. He said the children took them quickly, and it amazed him how many children didn’t have pillows, or warm blankets.
“Most of the time, the parents would go, ‘oh that’s a pillow, my child doesn’t have a pillow, or may I have a blanket,’” he said. “They provided that from their ministry, and they go quickly. So very nice to have that.”
The amount of Newberry County children that can participate in Operation Santa Claus this year will depend on the amount of toys donated. As of right now, Foster said they have 200 on the list.
“What we try to do is screen, see the fire department does things, DSS does things, a couple of the churches do things. We compare notes on that, we try to work with Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army as well. We don’t want somebody to get an excessive amount of things, but make sure get as many people something as we can,” he said.
This year, some of the families on the list have had some difficulties, including a fire and significant health issues.
“We took those on, and we always will. If at the last minute somebody has a critical need and we don’t have anything left, we figure out a way, and we always will,” he said.
This year the Sheriff’s Office received a donation of 100 brand new coats. Foster said they don’t normally take clothes because of some health regulations, but since these coats are brand new they accepted them.
Something new the Sheriff’s Office is doing this year is accepting canned goods and non-perishable food items. Foster said they were informed this year that all food banks in Newberry County were running critically short on food.
“Once gathered, we will divide them between various food pantries in our neighborhood. Anything left over from local food pantries, we will take the remainder to Harvest Hope,” he said. “So if somebody wants to bring a doll and can of soup, or jar of peanut butter, that would be nice. We want to help the entire family.”
Donations can be dropped off at the Sheriff’s Office Monday through Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. However, if someone would like to drop something off after hours, call (803) 321-2222, and arrangements will be made to receive the goods.
The dates of distribution for the toys and gifts is December 17-20. The Sheriff’s Office would like to get all donations in prior to this date.
