Operation Blue Santa delivers more than 19,000 gifts to Austin-area children
AUSTIN, Texas - For more than 5,000 families, Christmas gifting will be easier this year. Saturday morning, Operation Blue Santa delivered boxes full of toys to families in the community.
"This is where the magic happens," Blue Santa Manager Cathy Haggerty said.
It all started 50 years ago when two Austin police officers knew families on their patrol beat wouldn’t have gifts for their children for Christmas, so they decided to help.
"This is what they do kind of day in and day out. They’re servants of this community, they do it in a number of different ways, this is one of the happiest ways we get to do it," Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said.
The operation started with 20 families. This year, more than 19,000 children received a box. "The reason is it’s this big is because of the need," Haggerty said.
Each box contains items to help make Christmas a little easier for caregivers. "We put a big toy, a little toy, a stocking stuffer, a book and a stuffed animal in every package for every child," Haggerty said.
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Everything is donated from the community.
"Donations were not as good as they had been in the past. We think it probably had a lot to do with coming out of the pandemic and the fact that people are just feeling the pinch, but they’re rallying here at the last minute. We had a bunch of toys this past week, it was a little overwhelming, overwhelming in a good way, so we’ve been packaging them up and working as busy little elves in the Blue Santa warehouse," Haggerty said.
Hundreds of volunteers packaged the boxes, sorted, filled the cars, and delivered them to the families.
"This is community, this is what it’s about and there is no better holiday spirit than the spirit of giving and that’s what they’re doing today," Chacon said.
Haggerty said the preparation for the next Blue Santa starts tomorrow and they take donations and gifts year-round.