Toys Days has wrapped up and a spokesperson for Community Christmas says she has been encouraged by the community support.

Joanne Dyck adds the number of children they support during Christmas increases each year and she is blown away by how the community keeps up with the need. 

Sandra Maxymowich dropped toys off during Toys Days and says from working in Schevchenko School to running a daycare for almost ten years to participating in 4H programs children have been a big part of her life. Maxymowich notes she remembers people in the community helping her family when she was younger.

"I grew up in a home where we just had a stocking filled with peanuts and oranges and a candy cane. Whatever toys we got were from other people and that was very limited. I made sure that my son had way more than what I had and I feel other children should as well."

She says she's turning 49 next year and still has a toy train she received when she was a child from a kind member of the community. Maxymowich says she hopes each child who receives a present through Community Christmas has a huge smile that lights up their face as they unwrap the gift.

Jody Story says she has been dropping off toys for children in the Southeast for the past ten years. Story notes, growing up, she always had presents to open Christmas morning and can't imagine a Christmas without presents adding she hopes each child helped feels joy and happiness.

Grunthal Abundant Life Fellowship pastor Rick Neufeld bought toys for children in the Southeast. Neufeld says there were always presents to open on Christmas morning, but a community member once dropped toys off on their door step.  

"Somebody rang our doorbell in the evening and I ran out. It was a big box of nerf guns, the old nerf guns. Somebody just rang our doorbell and left them on the doorstep. We played with those for ages and ages anda ges. The funniest thing is, one of my best presents wasn't even from my parents, it was from somebody who showed love."

Neufeld adds each child should be shown love and have a present to open Christmas morning, whether or not that child is yours.

Melissa Unger also came to drop off toys during Toys Days. Unger says she can't imagine her children not having something to open Christmas morning adding she remembers a Christmas when she was younger and times were tough.

"I specifically remember the first year that my parents separated. Finances were hard and we were blessed by our church. We were just given happiness with community and gifts and food. It was very nice."

Unger says those are the Christmases she remembers the most. She notes her daughter, who is 9-years old, has recognized there are classmates who may not receive a present this Christmas and has told her mom they need to pray for them because they don't have the same things as she does.