With boxes and bags of new toys stacked to the ceiling, the Salvation Army in Cambridge has turned the old Lions Community Hall into a toy work shop.
Volunteers and workers sort and organize the thousands of gifts that have been donated either by the community or bought by the organization themselves in their Toy Shop at 50 Ainslie Street N.
"All of these toys will go a lot faster than you think," said Danette Woods, corps officer for the Salvation Army. "While this looks like a lot ot stuff and it is, but we get cleared out very quick."
The need the local Salvation Army is seeing is unprecedented. This comes after a year where they served more people than ever before, but the need keeps growing.
This extra strain has caused them to have to put families on a wait list, something they've not had to do before, Woods said.
"Last year we served just over 1,500 families and this year we are already at 1,800 and it's not even December yet," she said.
The Cambridge Salvation Army has been helping the community since 1884 when they opened their location in Galt, becoming the 29th Corps to be opened in Canada.
Every year they have held toy drives to gather presents for families in need of a little help during the holiday season.
This year, Woods expects there to be over 3,000 kids receiving gifts from them and are open to giving away more if they can open up more slots for families to come in and get presents.
"So how it works is a family will register online and book an appointment to come in with their kids and choose their presents," said Woods. "We are completely full right now for appointments all the way into December's, but I'm hoping we can get some more volunteers and open Friday up for times."
Each child will receive one main present, two secondary presents and a stocking stuffer with the family also getting a board game. There are no limits for how many children one family can bring in.
Woods recalls last year a family with six children coming in and choosing their gifts.
"It was amazing to be able to accommodate them all. Just the looks on their faces when they were able to pick what they wanted was priceless," she said. "There were so many gifts our volunteers had to help them bring them to the car."
The Salvation Army receives the majority of gifts from young children and are needing more donations for teenagers and babies.
"Sometimes it can be hard to think of presents for teens or babies, but anything that's geared towards that age range is a huge help," said Woods. "We usually have to pace ourselves with how much of those ones we give away, because we never want to turn a family away."
Being in a new space this year has been a blessing as they now have a dedicated space with multiple rooms to sort and pack presents. Their location at 16 Shade St. is currently under renovations.
Donations will be accepted until Dec. 22 at their drop off location at 50 Ainslie St. N in downtown Galt.
