Fulton County Christmas Toy Drive’s 5th Annual Salvation Army is facing a special need for toys for children ages 10 and older and babies up to 3 years old.
Toy Drive Coordinator Ryan Lowry, who also operates the Fulton County Area News Facebook page, has helped distribute nearly 50 toy collection boxes in Fulton and Montgomery counties over the past few weeks.
“There is no Salvation Army in Montgomery County, so the Salvation Army now helps Montgomery in Fulton County,” Lowry said. “A lot of our toys will help kids in Montgomery County as well.”
Lorre revealed Sunday what he’s seen so far this year for the annual toy collection effort.
“We don’t typically get stuff for kids ages 10 and up, getting it for that age is challenging, and we don’t have anything in stock at this time,” Lowry said. “And baby stuff, too. There are stuff that people can buy for babies, and we have a hard time even having kids, and people can donate, not just toys, but baby clothes and food.”
Captain Wendy Sr., commanding officer for Fulton County’s Salvation Army, said during the 2020 Christmas season his organization helped 388 families in Fulton and Montgomery counties, donating an average of five to six toys for each 506 children. She said the toy drive also includes opportunities to donate food, but so far this year the Salvation Army is seeing fewer total families expressing need, thanks to an increase in the amount of money available through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. gives to [SNAP], greater availability of food in the food pantry and additional mass food drops.
“Last year, there were a lot of people who were just food, and there were no toys involved, and it would be a lot of seniors or single people or the homeless,” she said. “This year we’re seeing more people come up to us and say ‘I don’t need food. I want toys. I want gifts for my kids.’ We see a trend in that direction.”
Lore said the Toy Drive effort uses the Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree Program” to help identify the needs of the community. He added that participating locations in the two counties have “angel tree tags,” which are paper tags that can be hung on a Christmas tree containing a specific child’s ID number, first name, age, gender, clothing size, and Christmas. Desire items. The tag contains all the necessary information that a sponsor needs to purchase a gift for their designated child.
Laurie said that four years after the toy drive was organized, Fulton County’s Salvation Army has developed a great deal of knowledge about the needs of specific children in the two counties.
“We’ve gotten bigger and better at it every year,” Lowry said. “What’s cool about our program is that while there are a lot of great toy programs out there, the really cool thing about our toy drives is that we know who these kids are. We know how old they are. We know what kinds of things they like or need, so the child will get exactly what they like and/or need, versus some other toy programs that just aim to provide toys to families. Huh. “
Some locations in Fulton County where Salvation Army toy collection boxes can be found include the Walmart Supercenter in Gloversville, the Fulton Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, and three locations used by First Choice Financial Federal Credit Union, which is their main Branch office is also included. Gloversville, a small branch inside Walmart Supercenter and a location near the Subway Shop in Vail Mills.
Lorre said the central hub for toy donations in Montgomery County is the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Fultonville.
“They’ll even go outside and, if an elderly person or someone can’t get to the sheriff’s office, and they want to donate a toy, they’ll send a patrol car to that person’s house,” Lowry said.
Volunteers needed for 2021 Hope March on Red Kettle Campaign
Another important aspect of the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas season activities is the organization’s 130th Red Kettle fundraising campaign. Captain Wendy Sr. said that each year the Salvation Army of Fulton County deploys two red kettles, one at the Price Chopper in Jonestown and the other at the Walmart Supercenter in Gloversville, to collect money to help those in need.
The senior said that in 2020 he had about 12 volunteers available to oversee the two red kettles and ring bells to help charities, but so far 2021 has proved to be a more difficult year to recruit volunteers.
“I had many more people willing to volunteer regularly last year – this year I have three,” said the senior. “Plus, I have fewer people to give.”
Senior said that although she has fewer volunteers to ask for donations, this year’s version of the Red Kettle campaign includes the ability for people to use payment apps on their smartphones, such as Google Pay and Apply Pay, in the campaign. to contribute money.
“Price Chopper will let us leave our stand up when there isn’t a kettle person around because people can use those payment apps to donate money even when there isn’t a person there,” Senior said. “People can just walk up to the kettle and pay the bus.”
The senior said those interested in volunteering should call his office at 518-725-4119.
More from The Daily Gazette:
Categories: Fulton Montgomery Shohri
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1844679482343900’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
