Toys for Tots sends off donations to eastern Kentucky

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – One local non-profit is making sure children in eastern Kentucky have a merry Christmas.

This morning, Toys for Tots loaded pallets of gifts onto a tractor-trailer headed to those counties that were ravaged by floods three years ago.

People from that area reached out to the nonprofit because of that disaster, making it harder for families to provide toys to their children during the holidays. The use of the tractor-trailer to carry all those Christmas presents was donated by Fruehauf, Inc. and Hill Transportation.

Haley Goodaker, human resources manager, Fruehauf, Inc., says, “We were very happy to be able to give one of our trailers to be able to help underserved kids get those toys this year.”

Nick Carnes, vice president of Hill Transportation, says, “Particularly this time of year, with the holidays rapidly approaching, it’s important to give back and help provide toys to children who otherwise wouldn’t have any.”

Janel Doyle, coordinator for Toys for Tots of Southern Kentucky, says, “We’ve got some extra toys that come in, and we were able to help those eastern Kentucky counties. And we are highly dependent on our white boxes in all of our counties. All of the boxes are out now. Warren County alone has over 200 boxes. We have to have those toys in there, in those boxes this year for us to bring back here to the North Pole to fulfill the need.”

Toys for Tots of Southern Kentucky has not only expanded its reach in distributing toys to economically disadvantaged children at Christmas. The all-volunteer group now provides books, games and puzzles to nursing homes, as well as food and clothes to the veterans in those facilities.

They are also establishing book nooks in our area to promote literacy.