The organizers of the Sparky's Toy Drive in Windsor are putting out a call to the community for help.
The toy drive has a long time tradition of helping to provide local needy families with new toys for children age 13 and under at Christmas.
Organizers count on the generosity of the businesses and citizens of Windsor and Essex County to keep this program operating, and a new challenge has recently popped up that they're dealing with.
For the last seven years they've been fortunate to occupy some space within the Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare site.
Joshua Easby, co-lead of Windsor Firefighters Sparky's Toy Drive, says the site is being repurposed so they're looking for a new space to conduct the daily business pertaining to the toy drive which includes collection, sorting and distribution of donations.
"We are searching for a new home. The community at large, the Windsor-Essex community, has been an amazing supporter of the toy drive and the Windsor Firefighters Benefit Fund for many years. We're sort of hoping that the community can come in huge for us again in our time of need," he said.
Easby says ideally their new space would be within the City of Windsor limits, approximately 7,000 to 10,000 square feet with loading dock access, be a secure location with on site parking and be a space they'd have year-round access to.
"The toy drive isn't just an operation that occurs throughout the Christmas season, this operation is basically underway year-round. We're constantly sorting, collating, and collecting donations throughout the year. Obviously our peak season is towards the holiday season, but we have volunteers working around the clock throughout the year."
Easby says they are able to provide a tax receipt for any donation of space that would be provided to them, as the Windsor Firefighters Benefit Fund was granted status as a registered charity designated by the CRA last year.
He says they're looking for immediate possession of the new space, but their timeline given is sometime in the summer when they would have to leave the current space.
"Ideally immediately would be the best case scenario that we could find a new home and begin to occupy it. Make the space kind of our own and in a functional way where we could see a proper use for it. Anytime, but the sooner the better would be the best answer for that," Easby said.
Yearly the toy drive assists roughly 1200 families, equating to roughly 3,000 children achieving their Christmas wishes.
Easby says they're also completely volunteer driven, being either active or retired firefighters from the City of Windsor.
Anyone interested in assisting in the cause can reach out to the Sparky's Toy Drive Instagram page or via email at sparkystoydrive.com.