Saturday is pick-up day for the Holiday Helpers program Ploof organizes with Dawn Rogers. Every year, the program supplies families in need with gifts their kids want for Christmas.

“A lot of them, this might be all they’re getting,” Ploof said.

Ploof couldn’t hold back tears as she told a story about how a woman who grew up getting gifts from the Holiday Helpers showed up this year to donate a van full of cute mini fridges for the older kids.

“She said, ‘You don’t realize what you’ve done for me,'” Ploof said. “She was giving back.”

Patti Ploof, center, looks over tables filled with Christmas gifts in the Saranac Lake Baptist Church gymnasium on Tuesday. These gifts will be distributed to families on Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

On the tables laid a smorgasbord of fun and entertainment — dolls, basketballs, sleds, purses filled with nail polish, fishing poles, ice cream makers, action figures, board games, blocks and something called a “bionic robot frogzilla.”

“They’re beautiful,” Saranac Lake Central School District Community Schools Liaison Erika Bezio said of the bounty of toys spread out on the tables. It was powerful to stand in the room and see the generosity people have, she said.

Ploof said there’s more on the way. Because there’s so many gifts, kids in the 10-12 age group will get one more toy than they did last year, she said.

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Christmas comes early

Patti Ploof, right, and Holiday Helpers volunteer Theresa Daunais look over tables filled with Christmas gifts in the Saranac Lake Baptist Church gymnasium on Tuesday. These gifts will be distributed to families on Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

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On Saturday, the parents will be let into the gift vault one-by-one, led by an “elf,” where they’ll have their pick of toys to fill a bag for their children to open on Christmas morning.

Every family will also leave with a bag of clothes, a heavy box full of food, a stuffed animal and a book for each child.

Ploof said this food will help over the holiday vacation, because students won’t be in school to get their free school lunches.

Each family will also get a full turkey. Usually, the Holiday Helpers buy these, but this year, Ploof said staff at Adirondack Medical Center, who each had the chance to get a turkey for Thanksgiving, donated their birds to go to the families.

Other food was donated by the Ecumenical Council of Saranac Lake and includes 480 pounds of Tuckers Taters donated from Tucker Farms.

Kids age 7 and up will each get a board game.

“The gift of the game is so important,” Bezio said. “Families can sit down together.”

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Helping the helpers

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Many of the gifts came from a collection bin at the Best Western hotel, which Ploof has emptied and seen filled many times since Nov. 1.

They brought a range of items, for kids of all ages, and Ploof said there’s a good selection of toys.

“We had some good shoppers this year,” Holiday Helpers volunteer Theresa Daunais said. “They did a really great job.”

Organizations also contribute. The Trudeau Institute, Adirondack Park Agency, American Management Association, state Department of Environmental Conservation, the federal prison in Ray Brook and New York State Police, among others, all collected gifts for the kids this year.

Ploof said on Sunday, after service, the entire Saranac Lake Baptist Church congregation helped bring all the gifts down from where they were being stored above the gym. She is grateful for the space and all the help the church offers the Holiday Helpers.

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‘For the kids’

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The helpers were short on volunteers this year because of the pandemic, Ploof said, so they’ve been working long hours getting the tables set up. Daunais was bundling toys together and attaching batteries to every toy that needs them. Ploof estimates she spent $500 to $800 on batteries this year.

“You do it because you want to make things right for the kids,” she said.

Bezio said the helpers make a big difference for young ones.

She said the program relieves holiday stress for dozens of parents and children around the area. Ploof said she can see the stress lift off parent’s shoulders. It’s hard for them to believe their eyes.

On Sunday, her work won’t be quite over yet. Ploof said she’ll shop for her own family once her Holiday Helper duties are done.