Cheatham County holds 5th annual Christmas toy drive benefitting local kids, collecting hundreds of toys
Hundreds of toys were recently donated to Ashland City’s 5th annual toy drive benefiting local organizations and families.
Parents and kids alike brought new and unwrapped children’s toys to the Cheatham County Courthouse Dec. 4, where Santa and Mrs. Claus were on hand to help receive gifts and donations, mingle with families and pose for photos during the drive.
Toys appropriate for newborns through 18 years of age were collected.
"The toy drive was so successful this year with us collecting hundreds (of toys) more than last year,” local resident and CPA Valerie Kemp said.
“We had eight truckloads of toys.”
Toys collected from the drive will be given to Christmas Anonymous, a local program run by the Ashland City Civitan Club that has been helping bring Christmas to Cheatham County children for more than a decade.
Without the help of local programs like Christmas Anonymous, several local families would otherwise do without on Christmas this year.
$500 in monetary donations was collected during the toy drive as well and will benefit The Ark Community Resource Center, a local nonprofit, food pantry, thrift store, angel tree and more.
The Ark will serve the southern Cheatham school cluster via a traditional angel tree this year.
And Christmas Anonymous will serve the central and northern school clusters by sorting toy donations from the drive and allowing families to ‘shop’ for their child’s Christmas gifts based on each family’s need.
On average between 400-600 children are served through the annual toy drive each year, according to Kemp.
“There’s a lot of need out there, historically, there’s always been a large need,” she said.
Last year, the toy drive was converted to a ‘drive thru,’ due to the pandemic, and event organizers kept that theme going this year, but new to the drive this year was the addition of online shopping.
Ashland City resident Brandi Ghergia came up with the idea to create an Amazon wish list to bolster toy donations.
“With the Amazon wish list, we’ve had people from Clarksville, Nashville, all over Middle Tennessee and even some further away (donating toys),” Kemp said.
Kemp founded the annual toy drive five years ago on her 40th birthday.
“I wanted to do something fun to celebrate my birthday, and I didn’t need any gift cards... so I said, ‘let’s just throw a big party and a toy drive.”
Katie Nixon can be reached at knixon@gannett.com or (615) 517-1285.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Cheatham County holds 5th annual Christmas toy drive benefitting local kids, collecting hundreds of toys
