Bemidji United Way to Hold Annual ‘Holiday Gifts for Kids’ Distribution

If you live in the Bemidji area, you may have noticed the many different toy drives that have been happening in the last few weeks. Those toy drives were all for United Way of Bemidji Area’s annual Holiday Gifts for Kids event.

The United Way understands that, unfortunately, not every child is able to receive a Christmas gift every year, so they ask the community to help donate toys for those in need. Families who registered for the program can stop by the Sanford Center on Thursday, December 12th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to choose a new and unwrapped gift for their child aged 0-17.

Parents and legal guardians will have many options to choose from.

“We get bikes from the First National Bank [Bemidji]; we get so many different varieties between the dolls and the cars and games for families, and so yes, lots of different kinds of things. I’d say my favorite is probably the board games,” said Gretchen Anderson, United Way of Bemidji Area. Community Impact Coordinator, “We have over 400 families signed up right now, which is over a thousand kids that we’re planning to serve. So, we just give a big ‘thank you’ to the community for all they’ve done to support and to donate gifts.”

Just over 1,200 kids are signed up for the event, and just over 1,400 gifts were donated this year.

Updated 12/11/24 with new totals for gift donations and children signed up for the distribution.