Christmas spirit
Need for toys is tremendous in this area

Private Agnes Sagina carries a load of presents to Gallup Police headquarters on Tuesday. The annual Toys for Tots gift program continues through today. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — About 1,400 children in and around Gallup will have a merrier Christmas thanks to Toys for Tots.

For the past four years, Kelly Akeson, a GPD resource officer assigned to Gallup schools, has led Gallup Police Department’s annual Toys for Tots drive.

“We are concentrating on Gallup and the immediate area,” Akeson said. “Other departments have their own programs ... Zuni has a program, as does NPD (Navajo Police Department).”

In order to collect the toys, Akeson enlisted local businesses. Donation stations have been set up inside buildings such as Amigo Chevrolet and Toyota, Gallup Lumber, Dollar General, Millennium Media and several banks since mid-November. Although most of these donation sites have closed for the season, Gallup Police Department will continue to accept toy donations through Christmas Eve. Unnecessary donations are saved for next year.

To hand out the toys, Akeson took referrals from local service agencies such as Battered Families Services, foster homes and the Children, Youth and Families Department. The agencies selected needy families to whom the toys would be a boon.

“The toys are distributed to survivors in shelters and transitional housing,” said Barbara Lambert, executive director of Battered Families Services in Gallup.

She said that at least a few families in the transitional-housing program lack the means to provide new Captain Jack Sparrow action figures, Heelys, scooters or video games. The assumption is that none of the families living in shelters have the means.

Lynn Sanchez, a Gallup resident, brought her nieces and nephew to Gallup Police Department Tuesday morning to pick up toys. She said she was helping her brother and sister-in-law, who didn’t have time to retrieve the toys themselves because they are working so much this season.

“Usually every year we donate (to Toys for Tots),” Sanchez said. “But with the economy the way it is, we are really penny pinching. It’s been extremely tight.”

Akeson said about 165 families picked up bags of wrapped toys Sunday. Lambert, of Battered Families Services, said Toys for Tots will bring gifts to at least 20 surviving families this year.

Ironically, Toys for Tots in Gallup ramped up about six years ago when two Gallup patrol officers responded to a domestic violence call on Christmas Day. They noticed that, although there were children in the home, there were neither a tree nor presents, according to Akeson.

Students at Gallup schools and members of local charities volunteered to wrap the presents Saturday using paper donated by the Gallup Police Association and by individuals. With the toys wrapped and ready to go, distribution started Sunday and will continue through Christmas Eve.

Akeson said the toy drive is still accepting walk-in applications at Gallup Police Department, which is located at 451 Boardman Drive.

“As long as I have the inventory, we will handle those on a case-by-case basis,” Akeson said.

Information: Gallup PD, (505) 722-2231.