by TImothy Rutt
Volunteers decended on the Altadena Community Center Saturday afternoon to help distribute goods to deserving families in the culmination of the Altadena Sheriff Station's holiday food and toy drive.
Altadena Sheriff Capt. John S. Benedict said that almost 350 applications from deserving families were processed this year. The applications were filled out at local schools, the sheriff station, and other locations.
The doors opened at 8 AM for families to receive a bag of toys, a box of nonperishable food, and gift cards, all donated by members of the community over the past several weeks.
And they're not done yet: Deputy Gregory Gabriel said that he would be taking volunteers to the Viking Food Charities distribution in Santa Monica tomorrow, another sheriff's department program. Altadena volunteers will take some of the 1,200 boxes of food to be distributed locally.
Extra toys from the local drive will go to the Operation Santa program from the Pasadena Police Department, where many of them will be distributed in Altadena.
1. Volunteers sort through the rows of toys to get them to the right family.
2. Every family received a box of food as well as the toys and gift cards.
3. Community members, including the sheriff' stations Volunteers on Patrol (here, Matthew Shropshire and Deb Halberstadt) sign in families.
4. Volunteers busily working to distribute the toys and food in the Community Center.
