Santa’s helpers
Photo by Cameron Hurst Pictured from left, Chautauqua County Town and Village Highway Association president Dave Babcock, of the town of Westfield, is flanked by Salvation Army majors John and Kim Merchant as well as Scott Trisket, Sam Ognibene and Tim Card during a presentation of $1,000 and over 1,000 toys. For the last 17 years, the association has held a toy drive to provide county children with toys on Christmas morning.
Photo by Cameron Hurst Town of Westfield Highway Supervisor Dave Babcock unloads boxes of toys with Salvation Army Major John Merchant on Wednesday.
Photo by Cameron Hurst Pictured from left, Chautauqua County Town and Village Highway Association president Dave Babcock, of the town of Westfield, is flanked by Salvation Army majors John and Kim Merchant as well as Scott Trisket, Sam Ognibene and Tim Card during a presentation of $1,000 and over 1,000 toys. For the last 17 years, the association has held a toy drive to provide county children with toys on Christmas morning.
Photo by Cameron Hurst Town of Westfield Highway Supervisor Dave Babcock unloads boxes of toys with Salvation Army Major John Merchant on Wednesday.
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Santa Claus' Christmas Eve voyage is still 12 days away.
But a donation this week by a group of highway supervisors might have provided a local outreach organization with enough toys to fill Jolly Old St. Nick's bag for those Chautauqua County children most in need of a smile on Christmas morning.
For the last 17 years, the Chautauqua County Town and Village Highway Association has hosted a "Toys for Kids" drive to help benefit the Jamestown and Dunkirk branches of the Salvation Army. The drive is one of two outreach programs that the association engages in, also providing a "Helping Hands" Program" to help association members that have had hard times due to an illness.
Originally a partnership with Doug and Martha Peterson, owners of Southern Tier Supply Company, the organization annually asks community members shopping at area stores to purchase a $10 or less toy to leave in one of the boxes located by the store's exit.
"All the superintendents have been out there asking for toys," association president Dave Babcock, highway supervisor for the town of Westfield, told The Post-Journal and OBSERVER. "We leave boxes at all the local stores throughout the county. The best part is that they go to the Salvation Army and all the toys are distributed here in Chautauqua County for the kids that need toys on Christmas morning."
Babcock said he feared how the organization's donation would be amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancelation of the highway supervisors' monthly meeting at the Lakewood Rod & Gun club. Last year, that meeting helped generate a 700-toy donation.
"This year we thought would be a struggle for us because we can't host our annual county meeting," Babcock said. "That really is when we're able to get a lot of the toys. With 2020 being a difficult year for everyone, we are hoping that this would be a successful year."
To Babcock's surprise, when a box truck, donated by Shults Chevrolet, arrived at the South Main Street building on Wednesday, volunteers from the association unloaded bags and boxes filled with well over 1,000 toys into the Salvation Army gymnasium -- a large donation that came courtesy of additional contributions from Elks Club Local 263.
Those toys will be split between the Jamestown and Dunkirk Salvation Army organizations. Babcock also presented a $1,000 check to a visibly moved Major John Merchant, who accepted the donation with his wife Kim.
"It was very awesome," Merchant said of the donation. "In the midst of COVID right now, when we were talking we didn't think they were going to be able to get us many toys this year. I said that whatever they could get us, we would be appreciative. They rallied behind us again and you can see the outcome -- It's overwhelming at a time like this right now and I just don't know what else to say but thank you."
"This is truly a special time of year for everyone and this toy drive is an example of what people are willing to do to make sure every child has something on Christmas morning in all of our communities," Babcock said.