By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
More than 700 children are counting on the generosity of local residents and the organizational skills of the Salvation Army to put Christmas presents under their trees this year.
When the Salvation Army opened up its pickup location in the Woodland Mall last Wednesday, the room was brimming with toys and bicycles for children whose families need extra help this year.
“They are so happy,” Harley Maddox, head of the Salvation Army office in Bowling Green, said of the parents picking up gifts.
“Quite a few of them have just fallen on hard times. They want their kids to have a happy Christmas. They don’t want their kids to know the hardship,” Maddox said.
One of those parents was Karen Heminger, who was picking up gifts for her two children.
“It helps a lot, when you are struggling,” said Karen Heminger, of Perrysburg.
Her family is facing foreclosure on their home, but she wanted her children to have some type of Christmas.
“So this is a Godsend,” Heminger said.
The toys came from local residents and businesses that give during the Salvation Army’s Hope for the Holidays campaign, the Angel Tree, and Toys for Tots program. Some help out by adopting families through the Salvation Army.
There were tables loaded with toys – baby dolls and Barbies, trucks and building blocks, stuffed animals, and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.
And the floor was full of bicycles – 30 new ones and 90 restored by Dave Snyder of Pemberville, who gives old bikes new life each year for the children helped by the Salvation Army.
There were also bags of food and gift cards for families to add some meat in their grocery carts.
“Wood County is just amazing. So generous,” Maddox said. “That always floors me.”
Local citizens, organizations, churches and businesses in Wood County always step up for those in need, she said.
“We’re just so appreciative of all the donations,” Maddox said.
When Maddox arrived in the morning to begin the gift and grocery distribution, parents were waiting.
“They were lined up all the way down the hallway,” she said.
The families were also given rolls of gift wrapping paper.
“So the parents can wrap them for the kids,” Maddox said.
In the parking lot at the mall, Amber Miller, of Millbury, was loading up the gifts she picked up for her children, ages 11, 9, 6 and 2.
Miller had picked out bicycles for all four, and was especially excited about some Spiderman items she got for her son, who is a “fanatic” about the superhero.
“We’re not going to let them see until Christmas,” she said about the toys and clothing. “They are going to be very happy.”
Miller said as a single parent, with a single income, the holidays are difficult.
“Without this it would be kind of hard,” actually impossible, she said.
Salvation Army volunteer Bill Eblin helped Miller load the bike, toys and groceries into her van.
“They appreciate it,” Eblin said of the families he assisted.
