CASA and the Amarillo Police Department are hosting ‘Cops for CASA’ toy drive

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Amarillo Police Department is teaming up with the Amarillo Area CASA for the 5th annual 'Cops for CASA' Toy and Gift Card Drive.

This event is to make the holidays brighter for children experiencing foster care.

"Whenever you're able to give a gift to our kids, you're also able to show these kids that someone from their community does care about them, someone does want to listen to them and help them out. So even if you're not able to be a CASA volunteer, or if you're not able to do a donation, giving them a gift card or giving them a little pen or you know some socks, it really does bring a lot of joy because these kids are from our community and we need to support them," said Azaley Pulley, recruitment & fund development director, Amarillo Area CASA.

If you're not able to make it to the main event, the community is encouraged to drop off new or unwrapped toys, toiletry goods, gift cards and other items to designated collection points across the city.

Drop off locations include:

Budweiser Distributing Company, 100 S Philadelphia St.

Amarillo Police Department, 200 SE 3rd Ave.

Journey Canyon Coffee, 3406 4th Ave Ste 400, Canyon, TX

Journey Polk Street Coffee, 817 S Polk St Suite 102.

Amarillo Area CASA, 112 SW 8th Ave.

The main toy drive event will be held in the parking lot at 6015 Hillside Road on November 14 and 15 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Nov. 16 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"It makes me feel so honored to be apart of that because these kids you know all they know right now is heartache because of what's going on in their lives, and so for people in our community that want to give and share and be like that and be excited about it and share it with their whole family and then we get to also be there, it's just amazing and it's one little thing, but I mean it's making a difference," said Sgt. Carla Burr, PIO of the Amarillo Police Department.

Every donation goes directly to children in foster care and helps provide them with gifts and essentials.

Pulley says they serve over 280 kids in seven different counties, which are Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Swisher, Hutchinson, Potter and Randall.

"Once we get those presents all wrapped up, we're able to deliver it to them. We play Santa for a bit. We go all to our seven counties and things like that. We'll even ship it to them, but once they're able to unwrap it their faces just lit up because they're like, 'Oh Santa came! He got me this. Take a picture of me with this.' and it's just a great feeling," said Pulley.

If you're not sure what to bring, there's an Amazon wishlist to browse to find gifts the kids truly want.

Organizers say this is a meaningful way to give back and make sure no child is forgotten this season.