By Dustin Shipman

dshipman@joplinglobe.com

Employees of Del Rio restaurants in Joplin, Webb City and Pittsburg pulled together this week to help make Christmas a little brighter for some area children by donating several gifts.

David Hays, co-owner of Del Rio, said employees at all three locations raised more than $1,200 to provide gifts to children of families who might not otherwise receive a Christmas gift. The restaurant matched the amount raised by employees and used the money to buy more than 170 gifts, which were donated on Wednesday to Crosslines Churches of Joplin Area and Watered Gardens.

“We raised the money through all of our stores. We get a quarter or 50 cents out of each employee every day and between the three stores we have probably 200 employees,” Hays said. “We started collecting around Thanksgiving, and the company matches it and we go out and buy a bunch of toys.”

He said the collection is an annual event that has gone on for close to seven years and is something the employees look forward to participating in.

Kathy Lewis, executive director for Crosslines, said the donations were much-needed and the organization was thankful to receive them.

“They brought by a truck full,” Lewis said. “The back of the truck was full and so was the cab, it was awesome.”

She said that the number of gifts that were needed last year was 775, and this year they are expecting an even higher number of children in need of gifts.

“The way it works is during the month of December, parents come into our toy room, pick out a toy for each child and then they take them home, wrap them and put them under the tree at home,” Lewis said. “For a lot of our clients, these are the only gifts that they get. (Del Rio’s) donation was the largest that we have had so far.”

Lewis said that Crosslines is still far short of the goal they were hoping for, however.

“We were closed the last three days due to the weather,” she said. “As of last Friday, we were up to 435 toys, but right now is usually when we get most of our people in. We might not get to the 775 like we did last year.”

Lewis said Crosslines will be open on Monday, Tuesday and even on Christmas Eve to accept donations.

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