Cops, Kids and Toys help Santa bring holiday cheer to families

This week, hundreds of Tompkins County kids will be anxiously awaiting waking up on Christmas morning to find presents under their trees, but every year, there are many families who can’t afford those presents. Cops, Kids and Toys, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization working in Tompkins County, has long worked to fill that gap by collecting toy and monetary donations to provide families in need with toys for Christmas. And this year, they’ve even expanded their reach beyond the county.

According to Don Lyke, vice president of Cops, Kids and Toys and an Ithaca College road patrol sergeant, Cops, Kids and Toys started about 40 years ago “because some police officers responded to a call and they saw that children didn’t have toys or a Christmas tree.”

“They went out and bought [toys] with their own money to make sure that this family had Christmas and toys under the tree,” he said. “So, that has grown into this entity that we have now. … It is a community-based way to bring people together to have a goal in mind, which is to get children toys.”

Last year, Cops, Kids and Toys served over 700 families, but they’ve slightly scaled down this year to serve over 400 families and more than 1,000 children in the county. Lyke said that the organization has received fewer applications this year, likely because many families are receiving Christmas assistance from other nonprofits.

With fewer families to serve in the county, the organization had some surplus toys, so volunteers decided to send toys and essential items in a large trailer load to Mayfield, Kentucky, a town hit hard by a tornado earlier this month.

“We usually store some toys [for the next year],” Lyke said. “But with the fundraising being as robust as it’s been this year, we’re hoping … that we can donate these toys and help somebody out this year and then make up the difference next year.”

As the name suggests, a wide variety of officers and deputies help with the annual process of collecting and distributing toys, many from the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department. The organization also had help from businesses like the Ithaca Target, area schools and colleges, and groups like the Ithaca Eagle Scouts.

Donations are brought to the Toy Room at Triphammer Marketplace, next to the ReUse Center, where they are then sorted into bags for each family.

Last weekend, volunteers brought the filled bags to designated pickup spots, an alternative method to pre-pandemic traditions. Usually, Cops, Kids and Toys personally delivers every bag to each family, but the pandemic has made that model difficult, said Bill Apgar, president of Cops, Kids and Toys and a Tompkins County probation officer.

“With the onset of COVID, basically, we went from a delivery system to a pickup system,” he said. “And we have determined to stay with that just because of the shortage of police staffing around the county. So, we have six locations around the county and a pickup day. And we just let an applicant choose the location they want to pick up from, and then we give them a day to pick them up.”

Another change in recent years is asking families about their kids’ interests prior to sorting the bags.

“We have an application process [that] we have grown so that we can actually try to get them some things that they like,” Lyke said. “Their interests are written down, so we actually set up our toys to shop for them. And then we have lots of volunteers that come and pull the toys and do actual shopping and everything. It’s an absolute joy.”

There are still some limits to the applications, Lyke explained. If families have applied for Christmas assistance through other groups or nonprofits, then they can’t also receive assistance through Cops, Kids and Toys. Also, families must live in Tompkins County at the time of application and pickup (see copskidsandtoys.org/questionsanswers.html for all the rules).

Lyke and Apgar said that this and every year, the county community has been very supportive of Cops, Kids and Toys. For example, Dryden Central School District, one of the program’s participants, looks to Cops, Kids and Toys to help to fill the gaps the school can’t through its own Christmas assistance efforts.

Superintendent Joshua Bacigalupi said that district social workers typically work with families in need to determine what their toy preferences are and then purchase and wrap those gifts to be delivered to the families, but for those they can’t reach, Cops, Kids and Toys is a big help.

“All month long, [kids are] inundated with pictures in the media and everything about what the perfect Christmas looks like,” he said. “It can be very disappointing to a kid when their family can’t afford that and [they] can’t understand that. And so, it’s done in a way to support students and to bring joy to students. And when they’re joyful, it’s a little bit easier here at school, too, for them.”

And for those that volunteer, the work is well worth it, as Tyler Mix, Tompkins County probation officer and Cops, Kids and Toys project supervisor, described.

“This is my first year going full fledge with the Cops, Kids and Toys stuff,” he said. “I did some intern work with them back in college, which got me introduced to the program. It’s been a lot of fun [to] get to help people and stay busy. … It’s important to me because I feel like I can make a difference in the community and make Christmas special for somebody.”

In addition to toy donations, Cops, Kids and Toys volunteers also help with Cornell University’s Child Safety Seat Program, which provides families in need with car seats and teaches families how to properly install their car seats. It was through this program that Pius Kayiira got involved.

“It was a chance meeting,” he said. “I was getting a safety lesson in putting our car seat in, and somebody was going to help us with our car seat. … The gentleman was like, ‘I’ll help you put this in no problem.’ It was raining out. And next thing I know, he’s like, ‘Well, I just came from doing Cops, Kids, and Toys.’ [I was] like, ‘What’s that?’”

Kayiira is the executive director of the Winners Circle Project (winners-circle.org), a program in which students work together to build a racecar that, when completed, is driven at Watkins Glen International. After Kayiira heard about Cops, Kids and Toys and its intention to deliver toys and necessities to Kentucky, he immediately wanted to help out. He and others at Winners Circle worked to fill several bins with toys, which were donated to Cops, Kids and Toys just last week.

“This is a great opportunity, and we’re blessed to have it,” he said. “Our heart definitely goes out to those people in Kentucky that went through that horrible ordeal that I can’t even imagine, so I know that there’s no way that this could, at all, replace all the pain and the hurt. But, hopefully, this can help people that are in need.”

Going forward, volunteers hope to expand the Cops, Kids and Toys program in future years, though the pandemic continues to make things uncertain. No matter what the future holds, volunteers are determined to keep spreading Christmas cheer to those less fortunate.

“We would always love a bigger operation,” Lyke said. “But … it’s what the applicants apply for. And if we’re not needed, I would still like to help … because the goal has always been to get the toys for the children. And this is the best way to do it.”

For more information, visit copskidsandtoys.org.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@vizellamedia.com.