GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County law enforcement officers joined their colleagues in Duval and St. Johns counties last week to take time out to be ‘Secret Santa’ for a day to give out 100 gift cards in the community. Each recipient tapped by a law enforcement officer was given a $100 pre-approved gift card for their use.

The gift card giveaway was made possible by two anonymous donors to the Jacksonville-based Community Foundation For Northeast Florida who ‘just wanted to give the men and women who keep our communities safe the opportunity to spread some joy in this holiday season.’ The donors approached The Community Foundation through their professional advisor, and a Donor Advised fund was established to carry out their wishes.

The Community Foundation worked with the donors, TD Bank, and the three Sheriff’s Offices to transform the $50,000 gift into the 500 gift cards for distribution. The TD Charitable Foundation supplied the TD Visa gift cards to The Community Foundation with no fee.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office distributed 300 of the cards, and Clay and St. Johns County’s Sheriff’s offices each distributed 100 gift cards. Area officers and deputies began their ‘Secret Santa’ duties the morning of Dec. 17 with these instructions: ‘Based on your experience in the community or with someone you may encounter today, you are asked to distribute these cards to individuals who you feel may benefit from a gift like this at this time of year.’ All cards were distributed by midnight.

Toys for Tots donates to Quigley House

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Quigley House recently received 13 bags of toys from the Clay County Marine Corps League’s “Toys for Tots” program for children who end up living in the county’s only shelter for victims of domestic violence and abuse. Marine Ken Plato delivered the toys to Cat Bowden, left, director of domestic violence services and Rebekah Thompson, shelter child advocate. The Clay County Marine Corps League provides more than 5,000 toys each year to Clay County children through Toys for Tots.

Christmas for the animals

LAKE ASBURY – Lake Asbury resident Kaidyn Cartafalsa, 7, celebrated her birthday early and took the focus off herself and focused on helping four-legged friends in Clay County. With her birthday on Dec. 26, she wanted to celebrate with her friends, so she had an early party. Using a “dog theme,” Cartafalsa had her friends bring dog gifts, which were in turn, donated to the SAFE Animal Shelter off County Road 220 in Doctor’s Inlet. Along with the food and dog toys collected, Cartafalsa collected $100 in cash donations for the shelter as well to ensure the animals have a Merry Christmas.

Clothes Closet gets donation from Wyle

ORANGE PARK – Since 2004 Wyle Laboratories has been an essential provider of Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for The Clothes Closet and Food Pantry. This year they provided turkeys, ham, canned goods and fresh produce for 230 families. They also provided additional funds this year as a supplement for the charity’s other programs. From left, Dan Gensch of Wyle, Faye Gill, Elaine Halley, Terry Rollen, Dave Britten all of The Clothes Closet and Food Pantry, Rob Hastings and Elsa Chaderton both of Wyle. Gill wishes a special thank you to Rob, Elsa and all those on the community relations committee at Wyle.

The rubber meets the road

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – Riviere Tire Co. of Keystone Heights was recently given a public thank you for its support of AMVETS Post 86 here. Beau Riviere, left, and crew are shown receiving a certificate of appreciation from Post Commander John Davis of Melrose. The tire company repaired our floats four tires free of charge allowing AMVETS to participate in this year’s Christmas parade as well of future parades.

OPHS students help the animals

ORANGE PARK – Orange Park High School had a drive to help the animals at Clay County Animal Care and Control this winter collecting more than 150 towels, 47 blankets and 150 pounds of dog and cat food. Jenifer DePalma, a science teacher at the school, ran the drive. “I am so proud of our students for giving from their hearts this Christmas season. They took the time to collect these gently used items from home,” DePalma said.

St. Johns CDS students hold food drives

ORANGE PARK – In the past few weeks, St. Johns Country Day School students collected and boxed more than 2,000 food items and goods for food pantries and clothing and toys for Head Start students, as well as paper bags for food rescue nonprofit, Waste Not Want Not. Students were challenged by division, by grade, by individuals and by the desire to make a positive difference in the lives of others they do not know.

The community service projects were: Lower School Food Drive to benefit the Food Pantry in Green Cove Springs. Several large boxes of food were collected and given to the nonprofit organization. Middle School Food Fight! Food Drive to benefit Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida. This event resulted in more than 1,000 items donated. Upper School Food Drive creatively used canned and boxed food donations as the admission fee to the Homecoming Dance. A paper bag drive held by the Middle School collected 500 bags for Waste Not Want Not with a promise of 500 more coming in the near future. Grade 4 students, comprised of three classes, sponsored two J.P. Hall Family Charities Head Start classes in Green Cove Springs. 28 children received clothing and toys at a party, complete with a visit from Santa.