Earlier this month, the 12th annual Woodland Police Department Fill the Trunk Toy Drive event brought joy and holiday spirit to many kids and families in the community. The event was put in partnership with the Woodland Police Activities League and the Woodland Police Department.

The event took place on Sunday, Dec. 22, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Velocity Island Park, making this the fourth year the event has been hosted there as it continues to grow more and more each year.

WPD Detective Stephanie Wilson was delighted to see such a massive turnout at the event this year.

“When this event started, we used to host about 40 families in total, and [yesterday] we had 381 families signed up for the event,” Wilson said. “So it gets bigger and bigger every single year, and we feel it’s important to host this toy drive because there are so many families that are in need of gifts due to financial strains and other reasons that they need a little bit of assistance. We also kind of the in-between where the public can donate, and we can facilitate it for them.”

Wilson explained that the WPD works alongside the Woodland Joint Unified School District to identify the families in need of services and gifts. She also works with the resident deputy for the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, who gives her the names of about 20 students from the Esparto elementary, middle, and high schools.

“We mostly serve with the homeless and foster and other families that are disadvantaged and need assistance,” Wilson said. “We also host a sign-up day, so if you are a family that has fallen on hard times, you can come up and sign up with us on our sign-up day and get on the list that way as well.”

Wilson mentioned this year’s donations were much bigger and grew significantly compared to past years.

“We had a couple companies step up and give huge donations and presents, and then huge donations and monetary funds,” she offered.

Teens get most of the monetary donations used to buy teen-specific gifts.

“So out of 381 kids, we had 140 teens this year. That’s the most we’ve ever had. So, like a lot of charities, stop serving at the 12 to 14 age, and we serve all the way up to 18. So we serve the teens that don’t get served, and it’s really important to us,” Wilson says.

Wilson mentioned that her favorite part of the event was seeing the kids and teens with their families and having that connection with them.

“My favorite part is seeing the kids coming in dressed in their best, and their little eyes light up as soon as they walk through the door and they see Santa there. They are just so excited to see him,” Wilson explained. “The other half of it is being able to see the parents walk into the ‘elf workshop’ and get to shop for their kids and seeing the smiles on their faces as well. You could just see the relief on their faces of not having to worry or stress about how they’re going to afford Christmas for their children.”

Wilson mentioned that they give away every gift that is donated to them so nothing goes to waste.

“This year, since we had such an abundance of toys, we were able to give five gifts per child, and that’s the most we’ve ever given,” Wilson said. “So any leftover gifts we have this year [today], we went out to different places in our community around Woodland Winters and Knights Landing and handed them out to make sure that all the gifts go to people that are in need, and that no gifts are wasted until next year. We made sure that everybody can have a good Christmas this year.”

She hopes that community partnerships for this event will continue to grow as they seek to host more of them annually.

“I think the biggest thing is the community partnership if it wasn’t for our generous toy donors, our generous monetary donors for those teen gifts if it wasn’t for the volunteer hours from everyone that volunteers,” Wilson says. “It’s just it kind of brings everybody together, and it’s public and us that brings everybody together, and we’re able to joy, enjoy Christmas together, and know that our community is being taken care of.”

Wilson thanked many of the sponsors who helped organize this event, including the Kiwanis Club of Woodland, which provided the pancake breakfast, and Velocity Island Park, which donates its facility every year.

Some other sponsors that helped with large donations included the Woodland Fire Association, Yolo County Sheriff’s Office DSA, COA & SMA Association, Walmart, Dutch Brothers- Woodland, Snow & Association Real Estate, A.R. Landscaping, Zamora 4-H, WHS & PHS Key Club, Kiwanis Club of Woodland, Woodland Host Lions, Fieldwork Sound & Lightning and many more.

Wilson encouraged all families to continue bringing their children to the winter wonderland experience that they offer.

“No matter if you have a Woodland address or not, we are one community. So we really like to take care of our own and know that everybody will have a good Christmas,” Wilson said.