This year Katie Houghton of Peru and her many helpers at Dixfield Discount Fuel raised $11,770 for an annual toy drive for children and teens in the Rumford area and surrounding towns.

They also arranged for 250 area children to be sponsored for gifts by generous community members.

And through the Dixfield Discount Fuel Toy Drive organization, which became a nonprofit last year, Houghton and her community also helped to provide Christmas items for children at nine local schools, giving gifts to over 1,000 kids, she said.

What were the results of this year’s Dixfield Discount Fuel Toy Drive? We raised $11,770.00 and about 250 children were sponsored by our Facebook friends and River Valley community. These children got new coats, snow pants, boots, clothing and lots of wonderful toys.

Our community stepped up in a way that we needed! Children in our area need help and we did it. DDF helped to provide Christmas items for all of our nine local schools! Over 1,000 kids will be reached. Dirigo Elementary School, Rumford Elementary School and Meroby Elementary School received three to four truckloads each, including all sponsored items and tons of extra clothing and toys.

Dirigo Middle School and Mountain Valley Middle Schools both got $800 in gift cards (for students). MVMS got 40 toiletry bags full of goodies, and both received bags/boxes of extra gifts and snacks! Chisholm Head Start (in Rumford) received a huge pile of toys. Western Foothills (Regional Program in Rumford) will get toys and a pile of gift cards! We were also able to deliver $800 in gift cards to both Dirigo High School and Mountain Valley High School.

Again, this year we had many classrooms of children come up with their teachers and (they) did volunteer shopping. Teaching a child to give is SO important, and to see this in our schools has made my year and all my toy drive goals come true.

When and how did the toy drive have its start? I started the toy drive in 2009 back when our office was in Dixfield. Dixfield Discount Fuel offered the customers a discount on their oil bill if they brought in a toy. I remember it clearly: I was pregnant with my first child, a little boy, and I was so excited. I was thinking about my child getting to go to this brand-new school in Peru. (I thought) maybe we can donate something to these kids of this new school. . . . So we did just that.

The first year I can remember bringing over a small box of toys with maybe six to 10 items. I thought it was the nicest thing I had ever been involved in. I brought them over to the brand-new Dirigo Elementary School (in Peru). It felt so nice to help these kids. As the years went on, we got to bring more and more to the school. The discount for customers grew too. We started with 5 cents off a gallon (of oil) to $10 off your delivery with a donation, and many customers took advantage of this deal.

My son got to come (to the toy drive) every year and then my daughter too. It makes me emotional thinking about it. They have learned so many wonderful things about giving to others from this program. We saved all the new toys they didn’t need or they outgrew. When they would get duplicate gifts we would look at each other when they opened it and wink and that would mean we would save it for the toy drive.

We collected so many toys that we had to give them to more than one school, so we started making piles for other elementary schools. Our truck drivers were walking in with stuffed animals and Legos and dolls. Clint (Bradbury, Dixfield Discount Fuel owner) ended up buying this building in Rumford and we slowly moved the oil company up here and it’s been the biggest blessing.

We have really used this space to the fullest, this large gallery is just what we needed to house this kind of program. Everyone in the company knows this is our thing, and it’s been a part of my life now for a long time. Cary Bradbury, co-owner of DDF, and I were working on this together a few years back and we had many requests from the public to shop for a child or a family. That’s when we called the schools to see if they would work on a list with us and it blew up after that. We started out with hundreds of kids that needed items. I reached out to my friends and family on social media and within hours we had all these children sponsored; it was wild.

I cannot believe how it has developed into such an incredible program. We have developed a relationship with the schools to keep it organized. The partnership with local businesses and their donations is what we count on as well. We start the toy drive kick-off at the Pumpkin Fest (in Rumford) in October and start raising money with our raffle basket. We collect toys at the Boondocks Farm Craft Fair (in Canton) every fall and this year we did a toy drive dance (at Boondocks Farm).

We put boxes all over the place for drop-off locations and we know it’s the employees that make these donations. They all shop and fill the boxes with the public. This community is willing to help us make this successful year after year.

Over the years I have had big dreams of reaching the middle school kids, so we started gift certificates and toiletry bags to help them through hard times.

Fast forward to 2022: We were getting funds donated in bigger amounts, so we started thinking about the high school kids. This was so big for us. I knew in my heart I wanted to help the local high schools. That was going to be a peak for me. I cried all the way out of that building last year. We truly did what we set out to accomplish.

As for my volunteers and delivery crew, the right people walk in the door asking to help and I know I can trust them to shop and run errands for us. That’s the true Christmas magic. These friends spend many hours shopping and organizing. We are forever grateful for all of this and all that we can accomplish in a short amount of time every year.

The Dixfield Discount Fuel Toy Drive is in its second year as a nonprofit. What made you decide to become a nonprofit? We were growing faster than expected and had to make sure the oil business and this toy drive were going to stay separate.

DDF donates the employees’ time while here at the office, keeping things organized as well as fuel oil for raffles to raise money. We were talking to many other people and businesses over the last few years, and many recommended we become a 501c3 because we would be more apt to get more funding, and businesses are more likely to donate larger amounts.

We also think as we grow, we may be able to apply for more grants in the future. Jennifer Kreckle (of Kreckle Law in Rumford) donated her time to us to get us going and it was very nice to have that experience to coach us through.

How much planning does it take to do the toy drive and how many people in general are involved? The planning is intense. The planning is three months of work. We start by (collecting items for) a basket that the community helps me make with donated items. Many people donated things for this basket. We raised $1,300 this year with the tickets sales.

Cary Bradbury and Caly Gordon are my everyday helpers. We are a solid team. Cary will go run to Walmart sometimes three times a day to get boots or snow pants so the kids are covered or get that Lego kit that one kid asked for. Caly will keep all the bags and items organized for us, keeping this place in order and answering the phones for me so I can meet and thank every single person at the door with their donations. It’s so wonderful to see this place before delivery day.

So many people had a part in our program this year. Our helpers included Audrea Pingree, Deb Gurney, Liz Tidswell, Lauren Haines and Stacy Fortin who shopped for us as well and put in the work organizing with us.

Caly Gordon assembled all the middle school toiletry bags, shopped and helped a massive amount taking care of lots of details. Then they all came together with us to load it all up and deliver. We had our DDF team here for delivery day and as well and Gary Dolloff, Tanner Bradeen, Katie Bolduc, Keegan, and Vanessa. Griffin and Savvy Houghton. Thank you, Mitchell and Max Giberson, Audra, and Lydia, Isla , Steve Pinkham, and Becca Rotford.

We always want to thank our business owner, Clinton Bradbury, for the space we call “Santa’s workshop” and for supporting this incredible project.

Why do you and the other people involved in the toy drive do the work that it takes to run a project of this magnitude? It brings us all into the Christmas spirit; it has brought out a sense of giving for a lot of us. What it means to help others and ones in need is important. We have grown with this program and it’s really something special. Everyone that’s involved knows what it means to help others in need. We look forward to what the future holds for us and this program. We love seeing the children involved with the donation part – it’s fully a community project.

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