DUNMORE, Pa. -- A police department in Lackawanna County is organizing its first toy drive.
Members of the Dunmore Police Department are cramming the cruiser, or in this case, filling a room with toys. The first-ever toy drive kicked off last week at the Dunmore Police Department.
"No kid should ever go through waking up Christmas morning without any presents. That's where it all fell in. A bunch of members from the department decided to get together and put this event on," said Dunmore Police Ptlm. Tom Richardson.
Richardson organizes National Night Out in Dunmore every year, and through that, has learned the importance of interacting with the community, especially kids in need.
This year, he and the rest of the department will be collecting and delivering toys to the community they are proud to serve.
"We have a great relationship with the community. Right from the start, and talking about this, we had multiple businesses along with people from the community reaching out to us, asking how they can donate, how they can be involved in the event."
There will be a second drop-off location at Fidelity Bank. Employees say they wanted to get involved to show their support for the community.
"It's one of our key goals at Fidelity, making sure we're giving back to our community that we love and serve," said Jill Valentini, Fidelity Bank.
Fidelity Bank is just one of those local businesses stepping up to help out, not only for the families in need, but to help out the officers, too.
"Because they protect and serve, and they put their lives on the line every day to do that, so it's important to us to partner with those people because they protect," Valentini said.
The toy drive runs through December 16, ending with a holiday party hosted by the Dunmore Police Department. Officers will deliver the toys on Christmas Eve.