SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Folks at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center can think of hundreds of reasons for the season.

They’re just hopeful local residents will help them make Christmas a little merrier for some of them.

“We’ve collected a few things in years past, but we’ve never tried anything on this scale,” Manager Hank Burch said, announcing the facility has joined WKRG’s “Great Toy Drive” as an official drop-off location for new, unwrapped toys through Dec. 18. Contributors at the 5 Rivers location will also receive a $5 coupon from Delta Safaris.

“Your donation is not only a toy for the child to play with and bring a smile to their face, but it’s a way of saying to their parents, ‘Your community cares about you, and we know you’re having a hard time right now,’” Burch said.

Local Salvation Army spokeswoman Stacy Killingsworth said although the coastal Alabama affiliate — which serves Mobile, Baldwin and Washington counties — joins a host of organizations such as Wilmer Hall and St. Mary’s House that will benefit from the collected toys, the social-service agency is thrilled to offer the drive its Mobile warehouse for storage and distribution coordination.

“WKRG did a great job with this last year, but they came to us and said, ‘We want to do it bigger and better this year. Can y’all help?’” Killingsworth said.

Baldwin County volunteers are still in the process of registering participants in the annual Angel Tree program for children in need, but she expects the names of as many as 500 of the county’s littlest angels to adorn trees countywide. Some 3,000 names have already been registered in Mobile and Washington counties.

“The toys collected in (this) drive will help us pick up the slack and provide gifts for the names not adopted by members of the community,” Killingsworth said.