{"id":52047,"date":"2024-11-20T20:57:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=52047"},"modified":"2024-11-20T20:57:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:57:41","slug":"lack-of-volunteers-could-cripple-polk-county-toys-for-tots-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/11\/20\/lack-of-volunteers-could-cripple-polk-county-toys-for-tots-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of volunteers could cripple Polk County Toys for Tots next year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polk County Toys For Tots makes sure every child has a Christmas each year, but it may not be around in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The organization is in desperate need of volunteers to help shop and bag toys as more families move into the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Susan Riordan’s sixth year being a volunteer. She gets a family’s wish list and shops around among the donated toys in the donated warehouse in Auburndale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I love giving and helping kids that can’t afford Christmas,” said Riordan. “It makes you feel it right here [in your heart].”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County is growing, but finding volunteers has become harder and harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, 11,800 children received toys and last year, more than 16,000 children received toys, which equates to 80,000 toys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program’s coordinator, Angela Davis, says the program is run by civilians, not marines, so if they can’t get more volunteers, then she fears this’ll be the program’s final year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We give out more toys here in Polk County than any other local organization,” said Davis. “If this goes away, there’s going to be a lot of heart-broken kids and families.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis says she’s trying to get the younger generation involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I tell every volunteer– I hope you wake up on Christmas morning with an extra big smile on your face knowing every child in Polk County has a Christmas because you contributed to it,” said Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toys are more than just a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It makes them laugh and smile,” said Riordan. “A memory they can hold forever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sign up to become a volunteer, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The non-profit is also hosting 2024 Bike Blast, where they’ll be distributing bicycles through a lottery system for the first time this year. Online applications open on Saturday, Dec. 7, between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s one bicycle per family. Last year, there were 16,000 kids and fewer than 600 bicycles were distributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polk County Toys For Tots makes sure every child has a Christmas each year, but it may not be around in the future. The organization is in desperate need of volunteers to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNFwvMTFcL2ltYWdlcy01LndlYnA_Zml0PTIyNSUyQzIyNSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkxhY2sgb2Ygdm9sdW50ZWVycyBjb3VsZCBjcmlwcGxlIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFRveXMgZm9yIFRvdHMgbmV4dCB5ZWFyIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.sqeW8UBe2hGmreJNMFjEmQHSE9c-STTU7vD0g9r3ZFkMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":52048,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/images-5.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[10374],"class_list":["post-52047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lack-of-volunteers-could-cripple-polk-county-toys-for-tots-next-year"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52049,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52047\/revisions\/52049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}