More than 1,000 people will enjoy a happier holiday season after 45 Pulaski County volunteers distributed food bags, toys and gifts to those in need.
More than 300 households received assistance and more than 700 children were served in this total. Volunteers from Pulaski County Human Services, the Methodist Church in Winamac, Kiwanis members, Winamac High School Sunshine Girls, boys basketball team and Student Council, Winamac Boy Scouts, Head Start, Junior Leaders, and community members spent the day Saturday helping parents shop for toys and wrapped them for distribution.
A donation drive was held to gather toys for the children this year for the Toy Store at the Pulaski County Human Services building in Winamac. Jacki Frain from PCHS thanks all who helped and proved that Pulaski County is working to help bring the community together.
The Coordinated Local Assistance Project (CLASP), coordinated by Pulaski County Human Services, continues to collect new toy donations for the Toy Store which will open on Dec. 15. December 14 is the last day to donate toys.
This is the 16th year for this community effort supported by CLASP, and last year, 370 families received food, clothes or toys thanks to the giving spirit of the community.
The Toy Store provides toys, clothes, food, and other items to people that have signed up for assistance for the holidays. Pulaski County Human Services, Inc. have been holding the food store annually for several years, and they don’t plan on stopping.
Elderly Services Specialist Rosetta Podell told WKVI that there are several different ways people can help out with the organization.
“If you’d like to sponsor a family and buy clothes for them, you can contact us and we’ll get you the agents of the children and their clothes sizes. And we can always use monetary donations for our food baskets as well,” Podell said.
Of course, donations aren’t the only thing the organization needs for the Toy Store. Volunteerism is a necessary thing, and Podell says that anyone interested in volunteering is more than welcome to come by.
“We have several people lined up to come, but the more people that we have the more smooth it goes so anybody that would like to stop by, we’ll put them to work!” she said.
