The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign has come to a close, and while toys are still trickling in, organizers say they’ll be able to give a little Christmas to more than 5,000 children in west Georgia this year.

In a written announcement last Saturday, Carlis Baker, the lead organizer for the local campaign, said that by last Tuesday the campaign had reached roughly 2,000 children, but in the days following, that number changed dramatically.

“I would give you an update on the numbers, but we were past 2,000 children Tuesday night, and it has been a blur since that time. We are being cautious to say we are approaching 6,000 children assisted. But we are very comfortable with 5,000 in the west Georgia campaign,” Baker said. “The people of the community have came through in a big way and put a load on us the last few days not only with filling orders, but toys have been coming in and needing to be picked up at an alarming rate also.”

Already, this year’s drive has nearly doubled the amount raised last year. In 2008, the drive garnered enough toys for roughly 2,800 children in Carroll, Haralson and Heard counties.

Sponsored by Southwire and the Times-Georgian, among others, this year’s drive nearly doubled the impact from last year, despite an ongoing national economic recession that has hit the region hard.

Because of the strain placed on all family budgets as a result of the recession, the amount collected through the drive represents a great success for the community, said Gary Leftwich, director of corporate communication at Southwire.

“It’s a true testament to our community’s spirit of generosity. Even in the midst of a recession, people dug deeper and helped more than 6,000 children. That’s what Christmas really is all about,” Leftwich said. “This never could have been pulled off without the tireless efforts of Carlis and the Toys for Tots volunteers. It’s an honor to be associated with such a caring, hard-working group of people.”

The Toys for Tots program was founded by Maj. Bill Hendricks of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1947 with a drive in Los Angeles that raised about 5,000 toys. In 1948, the campaign went nationwide and, to date, Toys for Tots has helped give 173 million children a memorable Christmas.

On the local stage, Baker has been working with Toys for Tots for the last nine years and now serves as the local coordinator for Carroll, Haralson and Heard counties.

He said that while the campaign works hard to touch as many people as it can each year, the focus is nonetheless on the individual. As a testament to this, Baker said, his organization received a call on Friday from Particia Hanson, a grandmother from Bowdon whose grandson had been having seizures and was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Hospital. The financial burden of having to pay hospital bills meant that she would not be able to provide gifts for her grandson this year, but that’s when Baker and the local Toys for Tots campaign stepped in.

“She had no way to come to us, so we took a Christmas to her,” Baker said. “We woke the grandmother, and the recipient up on Saturday morning at [8:20 a.m.] with a little Christmas from the community around him.”