NASHVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- More than $11,000 and 900 toys have been collected to help out five area charities.
Nascote Industries, a division of Magna Exteriors, held their annual Holiday Toy Drive which will go to support local charities in Clinton, Marion, Jefferson, Washington and Perry counties in southern Illinois.
Those organizations involved are Toys for Kids in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Pinckneyville Optimist Club in Pinckneyville, Lighthouse Community Church in Nashville, Illinois, Centralia Community Health Center in Centralia and Holy Garden of Prayer Church in Carlyle, Illinois.
The drive brought in $11,500 and collected more than 900 toys which will go to benefit children in the five county area through the various charity.
The funds and toys collected were in part of a fundraiser in October with a golf scramble, which involved three dozen players. Also, employees in November were invited to donate toys as well.
A new fundraising element in 2024 was the Helping Hands Holiday Hand Turkey Contest in which area elementary students took part in.
Nascote pledged to donate $1 for every hand turkey the elementary students created. Local schools and daycares took part in this contest. Nascote later collected 762 hand turkeys which were then displayed in their break rooms.
Out of the 762 hand turkeys, 10 of them were randomly chosen. The ten students who created those 10 hand turkeys then received a prize pack and a $25 Walmart gift card.
The winners of the hand turkey contest are below...
- Derek, pre-school, age 4
- Finn, kindergarten, Pinckneyville Grade School
- Nolan, 1st grade, Coulterville Grade School
- Kora, 1st grade, Beckmeyer Elementary School
- Hadley, 2nd grade, Nashville Primary School
- Ava, 3rd grade, Edinburg Elementary School
- Gabriella, 5th grade, Bartelso Grade School
- Lucy, 6th grade, Oakdale Grade School
- Bailey, 8th grade, Trinity Lutheran-Hoffman
