CROSS CITY- Almost 300 families in Dixie County will now have a gift-filled Christmas morning.

 

It was shopping day in the Toys for Tots program today.

 

It's amazing how much one organization can make a difference to so many families…providing them with a Christmas morning.

 

Toys for Tots helped out Santa today... and I spoke to one mother whose child's special Christmas wish was answered.

After waiting almost 10 hours in the cold weather last night, Cynthia Swope- Cobb can now give her daughter a Christmas.

"I'm disabled so there's no way I can afford to get toys for my daughter," said Cynthia Swope-Cobb. 

Toys for Tots has given her a Christmas for the past 13 years.

"Without it, my daughter wouldn't have a Christmas," 

Neither would one-year-old Bryly, whose great grandmother has been helped by toys for tots for 5 years.

"He got a wooden airplane somebody made and he loved it, it was the best, he still has it , said Christina Hall, a Dixie County Great Grandmother."

After registering, being approved to receive the gifts and waiting in line…it's time to shop.

When you go inside it looks like a toy store.

A volunteer helps each parent find toys for their tots.

 

Parents go in empty handed and walk out with a sleigh filled with gifts.

Martha Nelson's seven year-old daughter told her all she wanted for Christmas was a pair of shoes and a toy she never thought she'd get.

 

"All year she's asked for a Baby Alive and I found one, the one that she lost, so I'm really excited about it," said Martha Nelson, a Dixie County Mother. 

 

"You see their expression and how grateful they are and how pleased they are that their children are going to have Christmas, is what this is all about," said Pat Arcadi, the Co-Coordinator for Toys for Tots in Dixie County. 

Swope-Cobb says a 'thank you' isn't enough for what she leaves with today.

"It's almost overwhelming joy just to know that when I get up on Christmas and my little girl's face lights up…Santa has been there," Swope-Cobb said.

The Gainesville Toys for Tots distribution is next Wednesday.

 

I wanted to leave you with some more very good news.

 

After our last story about there not being a Toys for Tots this year in Gilchrist and Levy counties...one of our viewers reached out and told us he is eager to help those two counties next year.