Yesterday, 16 members of the Maplesville community gathered at the Clanton Wal-Mart to help the town buy Christmas presents for the Toys for Kids program.

There were a total of 64 families that applied for help from the Maplesville Toys for Kids program and 18 who registered late. Maplesville was on the verge of having to refuse families due to the amount of doantions tat the town received this year.

“The people just really don’t have the money to spend for their own Christmas, let alone try to help others with their Christmas shopping,” Town Clerk Sheila Haigler said.

After bringing in almost $8,000 the program was able to accept the many families that requested help for the holidays.

“We were able to help 82 families, which added up to be 153 children,” Haigler said.

Haigler said the town is still taking donations to make the last minute purchases that could not be made with the $8,000. To make sure they could buy for all of the families that asked for help, the town decided to lessen the amount of money spent on each child. By changing the spending amount, the town was able to provide more.

“We still want to do more for these families, but we wont be able to unless we get more contributions,” Haigler said.

The toys were transported to Maplesville, where they will be bagged and ready for the families in need to come and pick them up on Dec. 23. All toys should be picked up before noon that day.