Havre Eagles again running toy drive

Havre Eagles Club is again holding its two charitable drives to benefit children and families for Christmas and is asking the community to donate toys and other gifts or monetary donations, and asking for the names of people who are in need of some help.

“We’re just asking people to donate unwrapped gifts suitable for a boy or a girl at one of the locations. We’re also reaching out to businesses and community groups to adopt a family — we have quite a few families this year waiting for that,” organizer Candace Dess said.

For the fourth annual Toy Drive, Dess said, they ask that people buy toys and gifts for children, boys and girls, up to age 18, and drop of the unwrapped gifts at one of the designated locations: Little Miracles Daycare, Montana Country Boutique, North 40 Outfitters, Wild Thistle Boutique, Crossroads Hair and Design, Walmart, 40 Below Public House, Eagles Club, Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, Crawford Distillery, Ben Franklin, Havre Hi-Line Realty, Creative Yogurt, The Key Boutique, Henny Penny Cupcakes and Angel Care.

All of the boxes will be placed in the locations in the next few days, Dess said, and they will all be picked up by Dec. 21.

To distribute the toys, she added, they will continue with the system they set during COVID restrictions because it worked so well. They make appointments every 15 minutes to have parents come in and pick out gifts for their children who are signed up for the program. They volunteer members of local Girl Scout troops will wrap the presents before parents take them home.

As part of the Toy Drive, Dess said, Eagles members will be going door to door at local businesses Dec. 6, starting at 10 a.m., to collect toys and monetary donations. The money used in the Toy Drive helps buy gifts and items for the older kids because they seem to be a little trickier for people to buy for.

“Some of the monetary donations go to buy toys or items for the older kids because we don’t get a lot of stuff in the boxes for children that are 10, 12, 14 and older,” she said.

Some of the money is used to supplement the Eagle’s Adopt a Family program.

Dess said that people usually get together with friends, families and co-workers, or businesses and groups volunteer, to adopt families for the holiday, helping provide the families with their Christmas gifts and their meal.

Dess will have a list of gift suggestions and sizes and ages of the children for the families, she said. Donors can shop for the family or donate money and the organizers will do the shopping.

“It’s really up to the person or group. I have a couple groups that just donated money to sponsor and I have others that are getting together with friends and doing the shopping and the wrapping,” she said.

And the organizers asks that the donors also donate a $50 gift card to either Gary & Leo’s or Walmart so they can purchase at least a turkey for the family’s Christmas meal.

“It’s all just very much appreciated,” she said.

“Some of the families that are signed up, we get referrals for them, it’s just people that barely make ends meet all year long and the Christmas season is extra stressful for them — especially if there’s multiple children,” Dess added.

People can contact Dess at 406-262-0498 to sign up children and families for the Toy Drive and Adopt a Family and to make or ask about donations and adopting a family.

“People can do as much as they want,” Dess said, adding that “all the donations that we collect, everything, goes back to the community here in Havre. It goes to either buy toys for the Toy Drive or to supplement some of the families that we adopt.”