Christmas Gift Program Continues This Year
Pick an ornament to help a child have a Merry Christmas
Oskaloosa, Iowa – With Christmas quickly approaching, volunteers are asking for your assistance in purchasing Christmas presents this year for children who’s families may not have many financial resources.
The Oskaloosa Police Association in conjunction with the Oskaloosa Firefighters and Mahaska County Sheriff’s Posse, along with Mahaska Drug, Fareway, Hy-Vee and Wigg’s Country Store are all sponsors of the program. The program is “to help those people who might not be able to provide gifts for their children this Christmas season,” explained Lt. Troy Boston of the Oskaloosa Police Department.
The ornaments are located on trees at Mahaska Drug and Hy-vee and on the windows at Fareway. Each ornament has a child’s age and gender on them, along with clothing sizes and toy ideas. The ornaments usually go up around Black Friday.
Boston explained to Oskaloosa News how the tree works. “As shoppers go by, if they feel they have a little extra to share with a child they pick one of the stockings [ornaments], they go throughout the community and they buy the child a few things that might be on that Christmas stocking [ornament], or something else. It’s entirely up to them.”
The paper ornament serves a vital function in the process. It helps identify what child you have bought the items for.
Sometimes people start shopping and find out they might not be able to purchase those items after all. That’s not a problem. Just take the ornament back to the tree and place it there once again, that way another shopper will be able to choose it and it will assure that that child will receive presents at Christmas.
The list of children comes from SEIDA when parents request to be put on the list after they have been approved for heating assistance for the winter.
“Without the donations, without the help of the people going out and pulling these stockings off the tree, there’s just no way we could do it,” explained Boston.
“All of the monies we collect for this program stay with this program,” Boston said of the group. If your interested in making a financial contribution for what ever reason, you can stop by the police department at the Mahaska County Law Center with your donation.
