A Starkville woman hosts a toy drive for families in the community

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Christmas comes early for families in Starkville.

One organization is holding a toy drive to make sure Christmas trees are filled this year.

“This year, I felt like it was needed more simply because of the pandemic,” said Event Coordinator Ora Nickles.

Nickles is taking on the role of Santa Claus. She’s spreading the holiday spirit to families in the community one house at a time.

” Ora’s Tax Service always adopts families every year. Last year when I got started in December, God put on my heart to start a toy drive, ” said Nickles.

Nickels says this is one way she can give back. She has collected over 100 toys since January, buying gifts for boys and girls.

” My goal was to do 300 kids. I got in with the apartment complexes landlords where we actually found families kids that actually need the toys. So, they gave me 5-10 tenants in every apartment complex here,” said Nickles.

Dolls, trucks, and board games are just a few items to choose from.

The remaining toys will be handed out to families in the community.

“A lot of parents are not able to buy the kids toys this year because their hours got cut and some people even lost their jobs. I know people who lost their jobs. Some jobs didn’t open back up. You have some people that work in restaurants and they don’t need 15 workers, they only need five. So, it’s hard,” said Nickles.

Nickels says wouldn’t be possible without the help of volunteers.

“We have several people that came from different cities. I think it will be big next year in the community because I have people that reached out to me to actually be apart of this,” said volunteer Tasha Bean.

“I’m blessed to be able to help out. I’m blessed to have my volunteers to actually help me to go out and pass the toys out,” said Nickles.

Nickels is hopefully will continue to pay it forward.

“I’m just grateful and heartbreaking about it,” said Nickles.

Any remaining toys will be distributed to the community on another date.