Santa Store open this Saturday

FORT MADISON – The Santa Store is working its 17th year to help area children shop for their families.
The store, located just west of Aldis in the same building in downtown Fort Madison, will be open for shopping from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, according to Sandy Brown, director of P.A.W. Animal shelter. The Store is an annual fundraiser for the shelter.
Anyone wishing to donate new or used gifts to the Santa Store can drop them off today until 7 p.m.
Brown took a deep breath when she said the event is in its 17th year.
“Whew, just saying that out loud makes me tired just thinking of that,” she said. “But we’re here again and we’ll be open for shopping with elves on Saturday. We’re asking for a $5 donation for up to six items and we aren’t limiting kids to just one trip. They can go through again, we would just request the additional $5. We know some of these kids have more than six people to shop for.”
She said that they try each year to not turn anyone away but they’ve set a price that they hope is as manageable as possible for everyone. Monetary donations to help offset some other costs for families are also welcome.
Brown said anyone wanting to donate after hours Thursday or on Friday should call her to arrange a drop off at 319-470-3291. Typically someone is at the store Friday night before shopping from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. depending on weather. But she said it’s supposed to be seasonal so it shouldn’t be a problem.
She said people should watch the shelter’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Pawfortmadison for additional information.

There is some chance that the Store could be open next Saturday for community-wide shopping, but there won’t be wrapping during that session. The hours will be made available on the Facebook page.
She said children should come with lists of people they are buying for with genders marked to help with neutral names.
“It would help if the kids come with a list and boy or girl because you used to be able to tell that Ben was a boy and now you can't assume anything,” she said. “And if they could include the age of the person on the list that would help our elves, as well.”
The group is still welcoming volunteers and anyone wanting to help shoppers or wrapping should be at the store by 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The premise of the store is to let kids secretly shop for their family and friends and get it wrapped and have it as a surprise under the tree,” Brown said.
“That’s still the same principle that we started 17 years ago. If you come in on Saturday morning and it looks like we needed three more months, we did, but we'll pull it off. We always praise God. We always do. I don't know how, but we always get it done.”
Over the past years the group has served about 150 children during the weekend and Brown said she’s hearing that demand may be a little higher this year, but they are ready for that.
“I think, just off the top of my head, in two weekends last year, we did 150 kids. We have a feeling there's going to be a little bit more of a need this year.”