Photo courtesy of Sherry Graven from 2023

As Christmas draws closer, Greene County residents are once again asked to help less fortunate families to make the holiday brighter.

Greene County New Opportunities Coordinator Teresa Lansman says donations are needed for the Toys or Greene County Kids program. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that last year over 320 kids in the county received toys, which continues to show that this program is needed.

“We help children from infant to age 14 with Christmas toys to try to help take some of the burden off the families. It doesn’t help completely. There might be one toy the child really wants that the parents can go out and get themselves. But we help with the extra toys to make sure the kids have more than one thing under the tree.”  

Greene County New Opportunities also received a $6,000 donation from Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation during their recently held Give Back Awards toward the toy program. Toy donations can be dropped off at the Greene County New Opportunities Office, at 1401 North Elm Street, or the Greene County Engineer’s Office in the Greene County Courthouse, both in Jefferson. The deadline to make a donation is December 13th.