News Room | News Releases
12/23/11WFAA-TV Santa’s Helpers sets new record and will serve more North Texas Children with more toys than ever before
Dallas, Texas…WFAA’s annual Santa’s Helpers toy drive celebrated the campaign’s 42nd consecutive year in grand style with a new record.
The station collected nearly 80,000 toys at a series of drive-through events and drop off locations, as well as through phone banks and online donations. As a result, more than 53,000 North Texas children will receive gifts this holiday season. In 2004 WFAA and Santa’s Helpers sponsors collected approximately 80,000 toys serving 45,000 children.
“We set a new jump bar for Santa’s Helpers,” said Stephanie Wilcox, the station’s director of community marketing. “As a result of the generosity of the community, Santa’s Helpers is serving more children with more toys this year than ever before. We are extremely grateful to our sponsors for their dedication to this important seasonal community cause, the many volunteers who pitched in and, of course, all of the many North Texans who donated.”
The station’s 2011 campaign ran November 25 through December 21, with WFAA chief meteorologist Pete Delkus as the campaign’s spokesperson. Santa’s Helpers is sponsored by: Chick-fil-A, Don Davis Auto Group, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Tom Thumb. Santa's Helpers hosted five drive-through events including: in Arlington with the Don Davis Auto Group, Uptown Village at Cedar Hill, Frisco Central Fire Station and Safety Town, the Grapevine Train Depot, Fort Worth’s Will Rogers Memorial Center, and in Dallas at WFAA’s Victory Park studio.
Community service organizations throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area (Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties) were approved to distribute toys to needy children, age infant through teen, including: Assistance Center of Collin County, City of Fort Worth Cowboy Santas, Community Partners, Cummings Recreation Center, Dallas International Street Church, Dallas County Community Action Committee, Denton County Toy Store, The Family Place, Frisco Family Services, Genesis Women's Shelter, GRACE, Hope’s Door, Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, Metrocrest Social Services, Mission Arlington, Operation Relief Center, The Salvation Army of McKinney, Sharing Life Community Outreach, United Universe, Urban League of Dallas, West Dallas Community Center and West Dallas Multipurpose Center.
Agencies within the Santa's Helpers program are approved based on their ability to coordinate applications from and distributions to needy families, participate in the Community Council of Greater Dallas’ Holiday Clearinghouse for cross-referencing of names and adequately cover ZIP codes in areas throughout the D-FW area.
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WFAA is part of Belo Corp. (BLC), one of the nation’s largest pure-play, publicly-traded television companies, that owns and operates 20 television stations (nine in the top 25 markets) and their associated Web sites. Belo stations, which include affiliations with ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and the CW, reach more than 14 percent of U.S. television households in 15 highly-attractive markets. Belo stations rank first or second in nearly all of their local markets. Additional information is available at www.belo.com or by contacting Dave Muscari, WFAA vice president/product development at 214-977-6490.
