Sackets kids shop for Toys for Tots

Sackets Harbor Central School first-graders donned Santa hats and were full of holiday cheer Monday as they scoured the Kmart toy aisles for gifts to donate to Toys for Tots.

"We're going shopping for kids who don't get presents for Christmas, so they can have fun, too," said first-grader Emily C. Badzik, 7.

The need for toys is huge this year, because Toys for Tots has collected about half of what it did last year, said Ernest D. Ross, Toys for Tots coordinator for Jefferson County. Monetary donations also are way down, and there are more than 1,000 more children to collect toys for this year than there were last year, Mr. Ross said.

"It's awesome that these school kids are donating toys," he said.

The Sackets Harbor first-graders raised $285 during their bake sale last week to go shopping for needy children, first-grade teacher Brenda L. Schultes said.

"When the kids learned that some kids may not get presents, the classes came up with ideas of how we could earn money to buy toys for children," Mrs. Schultes said.

Sackets Harbor teachers and chaperones pushed carts filled with items such as a Connect Four game, an Etch-A-Sketch or a stuffed crocodile. There was a Play-Doh Dr. Drill set for a budding dentist and a model airplane set for a future pilot.

The children agreed that all of the gifts they chose were items they would want for Christmas.

Jaden Keyes, 7, jumped up and down, holding up his gift pick, a model airplane set.

"It's about helping kids, and toys are so fun to play with," Jaden said.

The shopping trip took about an hour, from when the children walked through the doors of Kmart to when they put their toys in the Toys for Tots drop box at the front of the store. Each pupil got to carry a gift to the drop box and by the time they were done, the box was overflowing.

It's groups such as the Sackets Harbor pupils that make it possible for children in Jefferson County to have a better Christmas, Mr. Ross said.

"There's no way that we could do what we do without these school groups that get together and donate," he said.