It’s the holiday season… Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa!
And to help insure that all local good little boys and girls are not shut out of their seasonal dreams, a team of eight shiny-white marked Essex County sheriff’s marked pick-up trucks and SUV’s departed Veterans Courthouse this morning to make their rounds at houses of worship, schools and social service agencies to deliver greetings and gifts as part of the 26th Annual Essex County Sheriff’s Holiday Gift Drive.
Sheriff Armando Fontoura noted that the officers and civilian staff from his department made the primary donations to the toy drive along with County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and the Essex County Department of Parks who also collected toys and gifts from visitors to Turtle Back Zoo. In total, nearly 5,000 toys and gifts will be delivered today.
The beneficiaries of Sheriff Fontoura’s toy drive include; The Salvation Army, 14th Avenue School, St. John’s Soup Kitchen, La Casa de Don Pedro, Ironbound Community Center, St. Augustine’s Church, St. Rocco & St. Ann Church, New Hope Baptist Church, Christian Love Baptist Church, Zion Hill Baptist Church, the Essex County Justice Center for Victims of Domestic Violence, Hawkins Street School, Ivy Street School, the North Ward Center, Iglesia Christian Emanuel Church, the Three Kings Feast, The Safe House for Battered Spouses and Children, the Childhood Development Center, New Community Corporation and the Children’s Wards at Clara Maass Medical Center, St. Barnabas Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital and University Hospital, among others.
“The work we do at this time of the year is a gift from the uniformed officers of our department to our neighbors,” Sheriff Fontoura said.