Alder Camp inmates made 615 toys ranging from rocking horses to dollhouses and bubble gum machines for this year's Santa's Workshop. | Photo courtesy of CalFire

Mittens flew off the Santa’s Workshop tree earlier this month and now Rural Human Services’ gift-giving program is gearing up to spread Christmas cheer this weekend.

Celia Perez, the program’s organizer, said the gifts will be distributed at 11 a.m. Saturday, though the families that are participating in the program have received text messages with a time for them to pick up their gifts. This is to save congestion, Perez said.

“I hadn’t even gotten applications in my hands when people called wanting to know where the giving trees were,” she told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Thursday, referring to the Christmas tree at Walmart decked out with mitten ornaments that included a child’s wish list. “I was handing out mittens by the dozen before they were able to be put on trees. Some never made it on trees.”

In addition to people in the community purchasing gifts for needy Del Norte County youngsters, the inmates at Alder Conservation Camp constructed 615 toys for Santa’s Workshop this year. This includes doll houses, cars, boats, planes, toy toolboxes, gum ball machines and rocking horses, according to a CalFire news release.

“Alder Camp has always been involved with projects ranging from fuels reduction, trail maintenance, road cleanup and disaster response, but building the toys has a greater impact on the offenders because they are helping provide gifts for children during the holiday season,” the news release stated. “These toys may be the only gifts these children receive this holiday, and the offenders are honored to provide these handmade treasures to the local children.”

Perez said she has ideas to improve the program for next year. This includes enabling parents to fill out a form online. Perez also pointed out that if they’re already income-eligible for an existing program like a state preschool, parents likely won’t have to provide a paystub to RHS to be approved for Santa’s Workshop.

Perez said RHS is also working with Del Norte schools to make the application process for Santa’s Workshop easier on families.

“The schools can help the families get their applications in and get the applications authorized through the school system,” she said. “So the family can have them quicker than having to go through an extra step.”

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