The pile of toys in the center of the fire station equipment bay on Coley Avenue in Escalon on Saturday morning, Dec. 20 was impressive.
What was even more impressive was how a small army of volunteers – ranging from high school soccer players to Starbucks baristas to members of the local American Legion and the Escalon Chamber – joined forces to divide and conquer the pile, separating the gifts into age-appropriate piles for boys and girls.
It was all part of the distribution day activities, the culmination of the local annual holiday toy drive. Escalon Fire Department, in cooperation with the Escalon American Legion Post 263 and the Escalon Police Department, put on the toy drive. The goal is to collect enough toys so that every child signing up for the program gets to have several gifts for Christmas.
This year’s final numbers were down slightly for those that signed up; there was a one-day registration earlier in the month for the Dec. 20 event.
Program coordinator Ryan Burr of Escalon Fire reported that there were 45 families signed up for the toy distribution this year.
That accounted for a total of 118 children and there were six different age groups for girls, six different age groups for boys.
For the girls, there were four in the infant category, seven in the one- to three-year-old age group; eight in the four- to six-year-old group; 20 in the seven- to nine-year-old category; 10 in the 10- to 12-year-old category and 15 in the 13- to 16-year-old age group. A total of 64 girls were signed up for the program.
For the boys, there were three in the infant category, followed by five in the one- to three-year-old group; 13 in the four- to six-year-olds; nine in the seven- to nine-year-old group; 15 in the 10- to 12-year-old group and nine in the 13- to 16-year-old category, for a total of 54 boys.
Families came in for the Saturday morning drive-thru distribution on Dec. 20, handing in the tag with their information, which was then cross-checked on site and the appropriate bags given for the age and gender of the children in the family.
There were also special items that went home with some families, including scooters and bicycles.
Escalon High School senior Co Northcutt said his soccer coach, Paul Silva, let the players know on Friday evening about the distribution program the next morning and encouraged everyone that could help out to show up at the firehouse.
“That’s like my wheelhouse, I’m so down to help out,” Northcutt said of taking part once he learned it was an effort to help kids in need in the community. “This is so much fun, I love this and knowing it’s going out to the kids, it’s amazing.”
Volunteers also included representatives of the police department, AMWest Ambulance, Starbucks, EHS basketball, the EMT/Fire class at the school, Supervisor Robert Rickman’s office and more,
From Starbucks, EHS alum Kaitlyn Baptista and April Strand went on a quick mission to get additional items for some of the kids signed up, needing to fill in the gaps in a couple of age groups.
“It was actually so much fun, we had such a good time looking through all the gifts and finding the age range of the kids and what they would like, buying up gifts that we would have liked to have received at that age,” Baptista said, adding that she also drew on memories of what her brothers liked at the various ages.
“I think it’s really fulfilling; I have a young daughter, she’s not old enough for all these types of toys yet but seeing that we can help provide for families who need it just makes me think of her and it makes me so emotional,” explained Strand, who added she was proud to see so many people, including the high school students, turning out to help others in the community.
Starbucks was one of many locations that had a donation box set out for toys during the collection period.
“It got pretty full,” Strand said, smiling.
