'Overwhelming joy,' Elyria Salvation Army distributes thousands of toys

ELYRIA — After months of planning and weeks of donations, the Elyria Corps of the Salvation Army welcomed parents on Thursday to take the thousands of toys the organization had collected for local kids in need. The annual toy and coat donation serves as a lifeline to many Elyria families, Elyria Corps Capt. Osha Agnewel said, allowing parents the chance to provide a great Christmas to their children without having to worry about affording gifts or sacrificing other needs to buy them. "For me, the hardest thing is meeting those families, talking with them and trying to hold back tears," Agnewel said. "Sometimes I'm just out there sobbing too. They just want to hug you, they are so grateful. And it's like, this is what we do this for, to see parents who can rest and relax on Christmas morning knowing their kids are happy." During the distribution on Thursday, the gymnasium of the Salvation Army on Broad Street was packed with gifts waiting to be picked up. The floor was covered in black garbage bags filled with toys and clothes, each bearing a number assigned to the recipient family, and the walls were lined with donated bicycles and other large gifts. Agnewel said the donations had been made by many private individuals and groups, but the largest providers of toys were the Elyria Walmart and The Chronicle-Telegram, which collected about 8,000 toys through its Not-Forgotten Box toy drive. "We are lacking in nothing this year, thanks to the community, to the Chronicle and to Walmart," she said. "... Elyria loves its community, it has been an overwhelming joy to see how people have responded despite what was going on with the government and the (federal) shutdown. People are struggling and we (the Salvation Army) said we have to do more. The community rallied together and said, 'We have to do more too.'" After a shorter than normal Not-Forgotten Box schedule, The Chronicle initially came up short of its 8,000 toy goal, but Publisher Bill Hudnutt and Chronicle workers stepped up to visit Walmart and make up the difference after the drive had technically ended. "Shopping for the toys has always been a fun part of it. You get some odd looks in the store as you keep filling up cart after cart," Hudnutt said. "Not-Forgotten Box has been around for almost 70 years. That's something to be proud of, but it also shows there's still a real need for it. I'm proud of what's been built and the tradition that's carried on, but the focus has to stay on doing the job right and making sure we're reaching the families who need it." Hudnutt credited inside sales representative and lead NFB organizer Lucy Velez and her team for making the drive possible year-after-year. While the Salvation Army has been the recipient of the Not-Forgotten Box toys for decades, Osha and her husband, Jamal Angewel, took over leadership of the distribution three years ago. The first year they ran it, Osha Agnewel said, a line built up so far that it wrapped around and blocked the entrance of the Taco Bell on West Avenue. She said the Taco Bell manager was kind but displeased, so the Agnewel's and their volunteers planned a new system where families are allowed to schedule a time to come pick up their bag, at a rate of 10 families every 15 minutes. Volunteers, including several from the Grafton Correctional Institution, ran back and forth from the gym to the cars, usually getting families loaded up and moving in about a minute. Even this though, is not enough to distribute all of the toys that the Elyria Corps has received this year. Families who missed the deadline to sign up for the distribution will be allowed to visit the Salvation Army on Friday to "shop" and pick out gifts from the hundreds of toys and winter clothes that will be left over. In all, Agnewel said 467 families registered to receive toys for hundreds of kids, and another roughly 100 children would receive gifts from the smaller distribution today. "We are so extremely grateful for the families who set aside some of what they have, to make sure that other families can have as well," she said. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.