{"id":448001,"date":"2025-12-15T05:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448001\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:29:13","slug":"new-toy-donations-needed-for-kroc-center-families-hoping-to-have-christmas-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448001\/","title":{"rendered":"new toy donations needed for Kroc Center families hoping to have Christmas \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Salvation Army Kroc Center<\/a> main campus in Rolando Park is urgently calling for new toy donations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is crucial that we get the donations in so that we can count them, sort them, and we can put them on the shelves,” said Glynis Eckert, director of marketing and partnerships at the Kroc Center. “Parents (are scheduled to come in) December 18, to shop for their children.”<\/p>\n

Every year, the Salvation Army collects new toys to distribute to families from a dozen zip codes in surrounding neighborhood communities. <\/p>\n

There are 400 low income families registered this year. Some of them living in poverty. Combined, they have more than 700 children who depend on the donations to have gifts for Christmas.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday, some shelves were empty and there are only two boxes of toys that have been donated for children 10-12 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an age group that is sometimes forgotten. People want to shop for little cute toys for children, and that\u2019s great. But that leaves us scrambling for older children,” Eckert said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"These<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

These two boxes hold the only donations for children ages 10-12. Many more are needed to meet the needs of registered families, December 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

The recent government shutdown, and uncertain economy are tough times that slashed the number of donations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese toys stay right here in our community,\u201d said Pamela George, Director of Youth & Family Development. \u201cParents come in and shop for their children with dignity. Each family is pre-vetted and truly in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us who have had great Christmases growing up know how important those are,” said Major Rob Birks, administrator and pastor of the Kroc Center. He is determined to keep the community connected for the children. “We are the conduit in the gift process,” Birks said.<\/p>\n

Donations can be dropped off at any venue in the Kroc Center at 6845 University Avenue, San Diego, CA 92115.<\/p>\n

Other options include making a financial contribution and designating it for “Christmas toys”. Or, shop online using the Amazon and Walmart tabs <\/a> on the Kroc Center’s website to overnight toys to the Kroc Center.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s my tenth Christmas here at the Salvation Army, and I\u2019m so worried about 700 children who aren\u2019t going to have enough under the tree this year. I really hope San Diegans can help us,” Eckert said. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

\t\t\tM.G. Perez<\/p>\n

Some last-minute donations arrived, Sunday. Toys purchased online with overnight delivery to the Kroc Center, December 14, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Salvation Army Kroc Center main campus in Rolando Park is urgently calling for new toy donations. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,44679,7709,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-448001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-christmas","12":"tag-holidays","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115721941259202172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}