Families struggling with expenses around the holiday's will again be able to turn to a trusted charity to assist them with putting toys under the tree this year for children age 13 and under.
Sparky's Toy Drive will start registering families starting this weekend at three locations across the city.
Interested families are requested to bring proper documentation with them to one of the following locations:
- Saturday November 16 at Forest Glade Arena from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- Sunday November 17 at the Gino and Liz Marco Complex from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- Saturday November 23 at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
The organization also depends on the generosity of businesses and citizens of Windsor-Essex to donate toys to the program.
Speaking on AM800's Live and Local, co-coordinator Joshua Easby says donations are currently being accepted.
"We are accepting donations at all of the seven Windsor fire stations, as well as Toys R Us and Devonshire Mall. There is a list that we will be updating as well as we are adding new drop off locations throughout the Christmas season here, up until Christmas day."
He says donations for children aged 8 and older tend to not be purchased until later in the drive.
"Both male and female seems to be an area we kind of have a little bit of a harder time getting some donations for in the beginning stages."
Gift cards to Devonshire Mall and other retailers are very popular among tweens and teens according to Easby.
Easby says Sparky's Toy Drive continues because of the generosity of the community.
"The Windsor-Essex community at large has been a tremendous supporter and backer of both the Windsor firefighters and Sparky's Toy Drive and we cannot thank them enough for their support because without it this initiative just would not be possible."
Yearly the toy drive assists roughly 1200 families, equating to roughly 3,000 children achieving their Christmas wishes.
More information on registration and drop-off locations can be found here: http://www.sparkystoydrivewindsor.com/.