Photo courtesy of Sheriff Curt Pennala Members of the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office getting set to deliver gifts to families for No Kid Without a Christmas.

KEWEENAW COUNTY — This year celebrates the 25th year of the Sheriff’s Department’s No Kid Without a Christmas, Sheriff Curt Pennala said on Monday. No Kid Without a Christmas is a toy drive for families in need. With the smallest population in the state, 10% of Keweenaw County is in poverty, according to the U.S. Census for 2022.

No Kid Without a Christmas was started in 1998 by Ron Lahti, who was then the sheriff in response to the need he saw around the county.

“When Ron started the program,” Pennala said, “he had five to 10 kids that were part of the program. He got donations, shopped for the kids, wrapped the gifts, and then delivered them just before Christmas.”

“So, here we are, 25 years later,” Pennala said, “we’re serving about 100 kids every year.”

Pennala said that as with every other year, the department accepts donations of clothing and toys, but the biggest need is monetary donations, because monetary donations allow his staff and his team of “elves,” to purchase items that are specifically listed as needed on the list received every year.

Penala’s office receives a list of families from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, at the beginning of every December. Parents have their children write down what they want or what they need, and Pennala and his team go out and shop for the items on the Wish List.

“We have a lot of fun with it,” he said, “especially for our deputies on the delivery date, when the program is all said and done and we get to go out and deliver all the gifts to the families, it’s a real day of joy for us.”

The delivery date is determined by a the area’s school calendar. This year, the delivery is scheduled for Monday, December 18.

One of the questions Pennala confessed to being asked frequently is “Do you really have to go all out on this kid?”

The answer is yes.

“We let them know that this may be the only time that child will get a gift for Christmas,” said Pennala. “So, we want to do everything we can to make their Christmas wishes come true.”

Even though the department tries to keep the program anonymous, he said, with the program starting its 25th year, from year to year, the department has a lot of people come back and say ‘When I was a kid, I was gifted through this program, so here are some gifts or money to give to the program.’So, it does come full-circle for us,” said Pennala.

For more information, please call the Sheriff’s Office at (906) 337-0528.