After Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office asked people to help fill a large truck in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Office’s administrative headquarters in downtown Greensboro with donations of needed supplies.

Now, the Sheriff’s Office is holding another drive, one with a much less somber purpose.

On Monday, Nov. 18, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office announced the renewal of its annual “Fill the Bus” toy drive, “where we come together to bring joy to children in need this holiday season.”

The Office will be accepting new and unwrapped toy donations until Friday, Dec. 13. This year, the bus will remain in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Office at 400 W. Washington St. in Greensboro, where donations can be dropped off on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Tuesday evening, Nov. 19, the Sheriff’s Office’s Community Resource Unit, together with the office’s Explorer Post Program, was stationed outside of the Target store at 1628 Highwoods Blvd. in Greensboro with the bus to collect donations from members of the community. They invited everyone to stop by, meet the team and help them fill the bus with toys for children in our community.

Last year’s effort was highly successful.

At a county commissioners meeting after the presents were distributed to needy kids in 2023, Guilford County Commissioner Carlvena Foster had a lot of praise for the Sheriff’s Office at the last Board of Commissioners meeting before Christmas last year.

Foster got to see some very happy kids, who normally don’t get a lot for Christmas, receive presents from the “Fill The Bus” campaign.

Last year, the bus also went out to strategic locations in the county to make it more convenient for people to donate.

The 2023 effort was also greatly aided by a foursome of county golfers who found themselves on an 18-hole hot streak. Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and  Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers played in the 5th Annual First Responders of the Triad Golf Tournament in late 2023 on a team that included attorney Marc Isaacson and Nathaniel Hargett III, the president and owner of Hargett Funeral Service, Inc.

The team came in first place – which meant the foursome could choose how to use the $25,000 that was donated from First Responders of the Triad, Inc. and Greensboro National Golf Club.

Half of that money went to feeding the hungry and the other half went to buying toys for the Fill the Bus effort.

Those gifts were distributed to the children about a week before Christmas.

“It was everything from TVs to bicycles, to scooters, to dolls and games  – whatever you could think of – and they were really nice toys,” Foster said of the presents last year.

Foster, who’s the executive director of the Carl Chavis YMCA in High Point, got to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they received the presents.

“The children were just amazed and were just really appreciative of being able to receive those toys,” she said.

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