SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office hosted its fourth annual toy drive for the Guardian ad Litem program, Saturday morning. But things looked a little differently this year.
“A lot of families have had a really hard time given the economy and things that have happened this year,” Spokesperson Kaitlyn Perez said. “So they need toys and support now more than ever.”
Every year the sheriff’s office collects toys at its Open House, but due to COVID, Perez says they cancelled it out of an abundance of caution. So, they made it a Toy Drive, literally.
“That’s why we invited Santa here to our headquarters along with his reindeer to say hello to families to accept gifts on behalf of Guardian Ad Litem who we’re collecting toys for and to still bring a special holiday for kids in this community who really need and deserve it.,” Perez said.
The toys are donated to children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect.
“These are really unique children and special children and unfortunately children that we interact with very frequently,” Perez said. “So, this holiday toy drive is very meaningful to all of our personal, our sworn personal, our detectives, our civilians because we interact with these families all the time.
The collection began on December 1st and will go through next Thursday. Perez says they have about 1500 toys underneath the tree. Now, from Saturday’s toy drive, they added about 600 more.
Suncoast families say they want to help children who may not otherwise have a Christmas this year.
“It was extra special this year to make sure we give back because we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work through this whole thing, where there’s been family who haven’t been as fortunate,” Sarasota County resident, Robert Sauder said. “And we want to show him (pointing at son) that Christmas isn’t all about just getting it’s also about giving.”
“Kids don’t understand, why can’t this happen, why can’t this happen, so you gotta make it happen because then the magic is dead and you just can’t survive that way and these kids are going to struggle no matter what so let’s give them a little joy,” Venice Resident, Aimee Fleahman said.
The sheriff’s office is collecting toys for newborns to 18-year-olds. Perez says the biggest need is for newborns to age five.
If you missed the toy drive today, not to worry, you can drop off a toy in the lobby anytime between 7 am to 7 pm through next Tuesday.
