ALTON - Thursday morning, over 150 volunteers gathered at Main Street United Methodist Church to sort thousands of toys, non-perishable food items, clothing and toiletry items for the United Way of Greater St. Louis Southwest Illinois Division's Community Christmas program.
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"All of the items are being collected from all of the different locations. From there, they are being sorted today by age group and we've got stuff to go to all of the different agencies. Tomorrow, all of the agencies will come and pick up the items and distribute them to their clients," Martha Morse, United Way Board Member and Chair of Community Christmas program, said.
The overwhelming support from donors around the community, along with the sheer magnitude of items that came through the church's doors this morning, is incredibly heartwarming, she said.
"We have so many people out helping today," she said. "We have students from the Alton Middle School, people from the community, businesses, United Way board members. It's a real community effort.
"It's unbelievable and so heart-warming to see overwhelming response and how everyone has come together to help us," she said. "The overwhelming generosity of the local businesses themselves and the people that they solicited from is amazing."
Aside from serving as the program's chair, Morse is also the Business Development Representative at 1st MidAmerica Credit Union.
Funds and items raised through Freer Auto Body's Cocoa and Cookies for Community Christmas and Christmas in July events the United Way to purchase even more toys for children around the community.
Students from around the region even got involved, running drives for both toys and food at their schools.
"The Edwardsville School District did a huge drive. Each of their schools at each level donated different items," she said. "Alton School District did a food drive. The list [ of donors] is endless," she said.
Fifteen different agencies will benefit from the Community Christmas program, and by some of the items sorted away into hundreds of boxes at the event, regardless of the situation they may be in, they will have a very merry Christmas.
