By Kathy Hanks
The Hutchinson News
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Christmas is still far off in the horizon, but not for those responsible for making it happen.
You won’t find the folks involved with the Prison Toy Lift waiting until the last minute.
Instead, Jerry and Judy Hill and 35 volunteers were wrapping and organizing gifts Tuesday morning in the gymnasium of the Salvation Army. They were determined that the 739 children of men housed in Hutchinson Correctional Facility have gifts to open this Christmas.
The crew of volunteers were deep into Christmas wrapping paper, including Gwen Zitterkoph who has volunteered for the past 10 years to be part of the massive undertaking.
She enjoys wrapping the gifts, she said, as she finished neatly folding the wrapping paper tightly around the corners of a toy for children 3 to 5 year’s old.
“They can’t help the situation they’re in,” Zitterkoph said, of the children. “And many of them are in poor situations.”
Just shopping for a family of children from infancy to teens can boggle the mind. That’s why Jerry Hill and his crew must be organized.
They begin the first Sunday in October, heading over to Hutchinson Correctional Facility by 7 a.m., so as not to interfere with the inmates various church services. Each prisoner can fill out a form with his childrens’ names, ages and addresses. Plus, they slip in a personal message wishing their kids a Merry Christmas. The gifts are mailed all over the country.
Once they know how many children they have on the gift list, the volunteers go shopping with money that has been donated. However, a lot of the gifts come from various groups including the Marines Toys for Tots Foundation, and the annual local Toy Run which will be Nov. 22 this year.
They begin early in November with the Prison Toy Lift for several reasons. One, because the earlier gifts are mailed the less chance of them arriving late. Those 739 gifts must be shipped to 347 addresses. That takes time. Also, they use the facilities at the Salvation Army to wrap the gifts and they might have other events scheduled for the gymnasium.
“It’s a wonderful program,” said Jerry Hill. The Salvation Army pays the postage for the gifts which can cost about $4,000.
Prior to the 24 women wrappers arriving, Jerry Hill and his nine buddies were preparing the big boxes to ship the gifts.
“We tried to find gifts easy to wrap,” he said, as he walked along the rows of puppets and MP 4 players, art sets and remote control cars. Then, for those hard to shop for teens, Jerry Hill had found the perfect gift – grooming kits of trendy lotion, deodorant, body spay and shampoo for both boys and girls.
Operation Prison Toy Lift boiled down to teamwork on Tuesday morning.
“We couldn’t do it without our volunteers,” Judy Hill said. “We all get more out of it than we give.”