Community pulls through again for toy drive

More than three dozen Colusa County residents put their elves hats on Saturday to help deliver a jolly Christmas for children who might not otherwise have had much.

For Rose Landeros of Colusa it was not so much an issue of not having anything for her daughter and her niece, who lives with her, but adding a little more to brighten the day.

"It allows me to do a little more, and more than they had" Landeros said. "It's been a tough year."

The 2012 CHiPS Toys for Tots program, co-sponsored by Impact Life, handed out 229 toys to children from throughout the county — including two new bikes to a pair of children in Williams.

"We put out 32 or 33 barrels this year, and again, the majority of those barrels had a good number of toys in them. ... So the community pulled through, again," said CHP Officer John Waggoner.

Additionally, nearly $4,000 in monetary donations were made — $1,300 of which went to buying additional toys, primarily for some of the older children.

The rest of the money went to support Impact Life's food bank. "So the community pulled through, again," Waggoner said.

The number of applications for toys was down from nearly 340 in 2011, continuing a positive trend that also showed the number of Food Baskets given away through that program down this year as well.

The 40 or so volunteers included members of Boy Scouts Troop No. 5.

The group also included Marco Cano, 9, who was helping his mother, Adriana Rivera, for the fourth straight year.

He does not understand all that goes into the event, but he knows some children who might not get them otherwise are going to get some toys.

"It's cool," he said.