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PAL toy drive to deliver to fewer kids this year
Lack of funding limits gifts in outlying areas
BARSTOW • The Barstow Police Activity League is scaling back its 14th annual Christmas Cops for Kids event due to a lack of funding this year.
Waking up to the horns of fire trucks and sirens of police cars has come to mean that presents, police and other public safety officials were coming to kids in the Barstow area. However some kids won’t get that experience this year. PAL executive director Sgt. Tim Heiden said the group won’t deliver toys to the Newberry Springs, Yermo or Daggett areas this year as part of the cutbacks to the Christmas Cops for Kids event.
“We would like to be able to give a toy to every child in the area, but because of the economy it just isn’t possible this year,” Heiden said. “We’re down thousands of dollars this year. It’s not just us either. It’s happening to Toys for Tots and other groups as well.”
Toys will still be delivered to the Hinkley, Grandview and Lenwood areas, according to Heiden. However, Heiden said this year groups will go to Lenwood Elementary School, Jasper Park and Hinkley Elementary School to distribute toys instead of going through the various neighborhoods with their patrol vehicles to pass out gifts in those area.
Heiden said the support of the Barstow Unified School District is what saved the toy deliveries to the Hinkley, Grandview and Lenwood areas. He spoke about the possible cutbacks to the program at the Nov. 24 BUSD school board meeting. The district is now heading up toy drive challenges to keep the deliveries in the outlying areas, according to Heiden.
Children of low-income families in the Newberry Springs, Yermo and Daggett areas will see the most impact from the cutbacks to the Christmas Cops for Kids program. The areas have already lost Project Angel Tree, which delivered gifts to low-income families in Newberry Springs, Yermo and Daggett, because of people trying to take advantage of the program, according to coordinator Sandra Brittain.
PAL will be collecting toys and donations at Wal-Mart on Dec. 12 and 19. Anyone that wants to donate can drop money or toys off at the Barstow Police Department, 220 East Mountain View Street, or call Heiden at (760) 256-5188 for more information.
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4126 or dheldreth@desertdispatch.com
