BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – This holiday season, you can help lift spirits of children in need across the community.
CASA of Kern County, along with American General Media, will collect toys for their Third Annual Holiday Toy Drive on December 2.
Rusty Burchfield, Corporate Director of Engineering at AGM, founded the Holiday Toy Drive. He said “Last year, we filled a 55-foot big rig with all the toys we collected. We were able to provide more than 6700 children with holiday gifts.” This year’s beneficiary is CASA of KC.
“Over the past twenty-two years, CASA of Kern County, a 501c3 non-profit organization, has advocated for thousands of local abused and neglected foster children.” Amy Raddatz, Resource Development Manager of CASA, says that the toy drive “will directly impact these children and give them a holiday to look forward to.”
Once CASA can help everyone on their end, the remaining toys will be distributed by them to other charities in the area. Essentially, multiple charities benefit from the donations.
Three years ago, Burchfield worked with Rogers Brandon, President and General Manager of AGM, to organize their first toy drive. He described it being “so successful and rewarding for the involved charities that they decided to make it an annual event.” Every year, the contributions have gotten progressively larger.
All six AGM radio stations - HITS 93.1 FM, HOT 94.1 FM, 96.9 FM La Caliente, 101.5 KGFM, ESPN 1230 AM, and KERN News Talk 1180AM/96.1FM - are coming together to host the event. DJs will be broadcasting live from Chuy’s parking lot on Rosedale Highway. AGM and all its sponsors are donating their time and labor for the event.
“Listeners from across Kern County respond with such generosity, it’s just amazing. Many people are telling us that they wanted to give back to the community that – in a great number of cases – had helped them when they were in need,” Robert Lewis, Director of Operations and Programming at AGM, explained.
American General Media and CASA of Kern County are asking the community to donate new, unwrapped toys that can be dropped off at the drive in Chuy’s parking lot this Friday between 6 a.m. to 6pm. In addition to toys, checks and cash will be accepted.
The theme of the event is “Bringing a smile to a child one toy at a time.” 100 percent of the proceeds will go into the community.
