Public Information Office
210 S. McDonald St. Suite 636
McKinney, TX 75069
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
| CONTACT: | Leigh Hornsby, Public Information Officer 972-548-4772 lhornsby@co.collin.tx.us |
November 17, 2004
Collin County Community Supervision and Corrections Department partners with Assistance Center of Collin County, PISD to serve families during the holiday season
(McKinney, TX) – The Collin County Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD) is helping bring joy to Plano families this holiday season.
CSCD is partnering with the Assistance Center of Collin County and Plano ISD to provide canned goods and toys to families in need through a program called Plano Santas. The Assistance Center identifies and screens families not served by other organizations, while the Plano ISD contributes the items and delivers them to a storage facility. Toys are donated from participants of the annual Christmas parade. CSCD sorts all of the items and organizes them for each family.
For more than 20 years, CSCD employees and the offenders they supervise have helped to coordinate these efforts. This year, as many as 30 to 50 offenders are expected to help each day during the sorting process, which stretches for two weeks prior to the weekend before Christmas.
“We have clients who come back every year to help because they enjoy the work so much, even after they no longer have community service hours to complete,” says program coordinator Devonia Sheaffer with the CSCD office.
Once the products are sorted, families are “adopted” by community members and organizations, and those who adopt them go to the warehouse to retrieve the canned goods and deliver to the families’ homes. For those families who are not adopted, volunteers take the items to the families’ homes. Anyone who would like to adopt a family can contact the Assistance Center of Collin County (972-422-1850).
Originally known as P.U.S.H. (Plano United Serving Humanity), the program became Plano Santas in the late 1990’s. It is expected that 600 families will be served by the program this year.