Grapevine Santa Cops programs in desperate need of donations
GRAPEVINE (CBSDFW.COM) - Grapevine Police Department's Santa Cops program, which helps struggling families put gifts under the tree, is short thousands of toys.
"Stepping into the room and seeing that it's really empty, it does give you that little pinch in the heart like ooh, what happened?" said Damaris Fernandez, a former Santa Cops recipient who now volunteers to help wrap the gifts.
Typically, 90% of the toys come from an annual baseball tournament, but this year the event was rained out. Now, the Santa Cops warehouse is nearly empty.
The police department is hosting a drive-thru toy drive at the Grapevine Public Safety building on Tuesday night, from 4-8 p.m. to bring in more donations. They're accepting new, unwrapped toys for kids and teens.
"I can't imagine how many kids, not being able to wake up on Christmas, not having any gifts, but I'm hopeful the community will come together and just say, we got this, we can do this," Fernandez said.
As a single mom, she knows firsthand the difference this program makes.
"It's like thank you Lord, I can give my daughters a gift under the tree," she said. "Not having to go through that whole struggle of I don't think I can afford this or not."
If you can't make it to the drive-thru toy drive, Santa Cops will still accept donations. Monetary donations will be accepted during regular business hours at the Grapevine Public Safety Building. Toy drop-off locations will be at:
- Grapevine Public Safety Building
- City Hall
- The REC
- Palace Theatre
- Hotel Vin
- Chill Grapevine
- Grapevine Runners Club
- D-Bat Southlake
Anyone wishing to volunteer to wrap toys can register to assist on scheduled wrapping nights, held in December. 2022 wrapping nights will take from 5-8pm place over three evenings:
- Tuesday, December 6
- Thursday, December 8
- Tuesday, December 13
Wrapping will take place at our Toy Shoppe, located at 1217 SH-114, Suite 100 in Grapevine (near the Target Shopping Center.) Sign-up for wrapping nights is now OPEN, but you must register in advance.
