Couple's idea helps Roselle church make Christmas possible for 350 less fortunate kids

When Theresa and John Mittelbrun decided to help put some presents under the trees of a few less fortunate neighbors in 2016, they never imagined they'd be helping 350 children by this year.

Theresa Mittelbrun, the director of generosity at Roselle's Trinity Lutheran Church, and about 90 volunteers recently hosted the church's third annual Christmas Toy Store. Through donations from the congregation and the local business community, hundreds of toys were made available to low-income families at a discounted price of $2 per toy. The only caveat is no video games or violent toys are allowed.

"We go to the schools in the area and we give invitations to school social workers. They identify families in need, then the families can go online and register," Mittelbrun said. "We ask for toys in the range of $10 to $25 for kids ages 0 through 14. Some spend a little more, but no matter what it is, these families have the ability to get their child's Christmas for $2."

The families shopped at four designated times, with volunteers divvying up the more desirable toys among the four times to allow everyone an opportunity at "the good stuff."

The number of invited community members has nearly doubled since last year. That caused a brief but unnecessary concern that they may run out of toys at this year's event.

"Our first year, we had 40 families attend and last year we had 56. This year, we had 94 families attend," Mittelbrun said. "Those 94 families shopped for a total of about 350 kids, so it went really well. We came pretty darn close to running out of all those great toys."

In years when toys remain after the event, Mittelbrun said, they are split up and shared with Bloomingdale Township's toy drive and a couple of inner-city congregations Trinity partners with.

Mittelbrun said the church will begin collecting toys next fall in hopes of putting even more gifts under more trees next year.