The Northwest Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce will again collect toys for local children this year, but in a different way.
This year is the chamber’s 25th annual toy drive, and typically the chamber holds a holiday get-together, and the admission for the event is an unwrapped toy.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year the chamber will hold a drive-thru toy drop-off from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, outside the House Springs Lions Club, 6482 Hwy. MM, in House Springs, which is being sold to Rodney Leadbetter, who plans to relocate the Slo Odie’s restaurant there.
“You don’t have to even get out of your car,” event chairperson Sharon Reineri said. “Hopefully, we will be able to collect as much as we have in the past at the actual social gathering. This is our 25th toy drive and I was really hoping it could be a really special one.”
All the toys will go to families who live along the Hwy. 30 corridor.
Half of the toys go to the High Ridge Fire Department and the other half to the Cedar Hill Fire Department,
“They actually take care of the distribution,” Reineri said.
She said firefighters from those two districts will collect unwrapped toys and cash donations at local Dollar General stores and the Walmart store in High Ridge on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28 and 29.
Last year, the chamber collected thousands of toys and $7,500 in cash, Reineri said.
Another way to donate to the drive, Reineri said, is to drop them off at local businesses where collection barrels are located.
Barrels are at the following High Ridge locations:
Anytime Fitness, 7 Dillon Plaza Drive; Jilly’s Cafe and Steakhouse, 1630 Gravois Road; SSM Health Physical Therapy, 32 Dillon Plaza Drive; the High Ridge Fire Protection District, 2842 High Ridge Blvd; Ridge Restaurant, 3025 High Ridge Blvd; Rockwood Bank, 23 Dillon Plaza Drive; Dollar General, 2713 High Ridge Blvd; Pegg’s Restaurant, 1001 Crossroads Place; Bi-State Landscape Supply, 3112 Pleasant View Drive; and Iron Barley’s High Hog Ridge, 3367 High Ridge Blvd.
In House Springs barrels are at: Dollar General, 7 Walters Place; Northwest R-1 Early Childhood Center, 6180 Hwy. MM; Northwest Jefferson County Senior Resource Center, 6180 Hwy. MM; Complete Fitness, 4567 Hunter Lane; and Enterprise Bank, 4675 Gravois Road.
Barrels are in Cedar Hill at: Dollar General, 7036 Hwy. BB; Enterprise Bank, 8475 Local Hillsboro Road; and Cedar Hill Fire Protection District, 6766 Cedar Hill Road.