The gift of giving was felt in a big way on Friday morning at the Community Action Center of Northfield.

Several Greenvale Park Elementary fifth-graders—along with adult supervision—dropped off 358 unwrapped toys for the CAC's Christmas Sharing program.

Abby Swanson's class had made a classroom goal to collect 200 toys to be given to the effort. As the group left school Friday, Principal David Craft said students were still handing in toys.

"This makes a big, big difference in many children's lives," Judy Bickel, program director for the CAC, told the students.

She said this year's collection will serve about 900 children. On Wednesday, the toys will be distributed to families.

Toys are being collected at 39 sites throughout the Northfield area, thought not all of them are open to the public. Bickel said folks interested in donating toys this weekend can find drop-off stations at Cub Foods, Econofoods and Just Food Co-op.

Volunteers will collect the gifts from the 39 collection sites on Monday. Gifts can also be dropped of at the Northfield Community Resource Center (Room SS103) through 5 p.m. Tuesday and is the only place to drop off toys after Sunday night.  

Bickel said monetary gifts are also welcomed. Donations to Christmas Sharing can be sent directly to:

Community Action Center of Northfield
1651 Jefferson Parkway HS200
Northfield, MN 55057

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