by Timothy Rutt
There's still time to donate food, cash, or a new and unwrapped toy to the Altadena Sheriff Station's food and toy drive,
The Altadena Sheriff Station is still looking for donations of non-perishable canned food items, cash, and/or unwrapped toys for children ages 2-12 for its annual holiday food and toy drive. Altadena Capt. Steven McLean said that the need is great, and they are looking to assist 300 families this year.
Donations can be left at the Altadena Sheriff's Station, 780 E. Altadena Dr.; Bank of America, 2345 N. Lake Ave., or Chase Bank, 2333 N. Lake Ave., through Dec. 11.
The President Streets neighborhood group will also be collecting donations on Harding Drive on Sat., Dec. 10, from 9-10 AM.
Distribution to families will be on Dec. 17.
You can also drop off cash or checks payable to "Altadena Station Fund" at the station.
For more information, call Dep. Ronnie Manier or Sgt. Michael Randenberg at the Altadena Sheriff Station at 626-798-1131 or 626-296-2105.
Pictured: Nancy Rothwell and Hugo Arteaga at the Palm St. Area Residents Association collection for the toy drive on Dec. 3. What is it with these people and the red shirts?
UPDATE: Carolyn Seitz sends this schedule, if you'd like to volunteer:
Fri., Dec. 9: Help us from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Altadena Community Center as we set up the Center for the sorting and packing of the food and toys. We'll be taking everything out of the Pods and into the Center and setting up tables to help facilitate the inventory of food and toys so we know whether the Station needs to purchase more or find a way to get more donated
Sat., Dec. 10: From 7:30 am to Noon or 1 or whenever we finish, we will be at the Community Center sorting toys and bagging them for each family we hope to serve and packing food boxes. When we're done, everything has to be packed back into the storage Pods. The briefing of the team and assignment of tasks will begin at 7:30.
From 9 am to 10 am - the President Streets area will hold its 3rd Annual Food & Toy Drive at 1826 N Harding. You can drive by and drop off food and toy donations - all will be gratefully accepted. Have small kids who would like to have mom or dad take their photo in a Sheriff's car, come on over and have some fun with us.
Fri., Dec. 16 We can use many hands again to unpack the Pods and set up the Community Center for the food and toy distribution. We will be stacking the food boxes and organizing the bags of toys for each family, by the source who provided their information. That will take place on Friday afternoon.
Sat., Dec. 17: From 7 am to 12:30 pm at the Community Center. We will have a briefing and assignment of tasks then we will sort the bags of toys in each group alphabetically. The distribution will begin at 8 am and will be completed by noon. We will also have groups of people making phone calls to those who haven't yet arrived to pick up their food and toys by about 10 am. In that process sometimes we've discovered that the custodial adult in some families is an elderly grandparent or a parent who is disabled, so volunteers deliver their food and toys.
If you can participate in any of these events, please let me know which day and event. It'll help us know for which we need to look for more volunteers.
If you'd like to donate non-perishable foods - canned corn, green beans, carrots, boxes of stuffing mix, cake mix, brownie mix, Jiffy Cornbread, jello, pudding or other similar foods, you can drop them off at the Sheriff's Station until Friday the 9th, or bring them to the Community Center on Saturday morning the 10th.
You can also drop off new toys at the Sheriff's Station until Friday the 9th or bring them to the Community Center on Saturday morning, the 10th.
You can also bring cash donations or checks payable to "Altadena Station Fund" to the Sheriff's Station until Thursday, December 15th.
Many thanks to all who have donated and/or volunteered and special thanks to the President Streets area for their very generous support for the food and toy drive for 3 years and for the La Vina community for having supported the food and toy drive for many more years.
We have extraordinary need this year. Your generosity is much appreciated.
