A boisterous “Yahoo!” rang out from behind a makeshift desk full to brimming with toys, packages and stacks of paperwork.

The 2023 Making Christmas Bright/Guardians for New Futures Angel Program had just reached 100 percent of children matched with toys – and Amparo Gomez, lovingly referred to as the Christmas Queen by her volunteers and colleagues, was excited.

“We did it!” she cried. “All children on the list are taken care of!”

The list in reference is long, composed of all children in the Communities Connected for Kids’ Circuit 19 dependency system and another 251 from the community – all told, 1,169 children.

“It was an amazing year – one of the best,” said Christina Kaiser, community relations director for CCKids. The project, a partnership between CCKids and Guardians for New Futures, got a boost this year from an infusion of new sponsors and the addition of an online toy drive.

The online component alone, collected nearly 500 toys.

“It was a last-minute addition, but it was an incredible success because it gave people who are homebound or who prefer not to shop in stores to contribute,” Kaiser said.

Those toys were sent directly to CCKids service centers to help fill the need for children who entered the dependency system after individual toy-request forms were turned in earlier in the fall.

New sponsors – 16 onboarded this year - also helped the program reach its goal.

“Keller Williams is a great example,” Kaiser said. “They were new this year, but they asked us to give them all remaining unmatched names.”

And they delivered on their commitment, she said.

“Their network of Realtors provided three gifts for each of the 120 children they sponsored.”

Of the more than 1,000 children who received gifts, 201 were from Indian River County, 78 were in Martin County, 123 were from Okeechobee County, and a whopping 516 were from St. Lucie County, CCKids’ largest service area.

Many of those gifts were collected and delivered by Rytech Restoration Services, which has donated its trucks and drivers to the program for more than five years.

“It’s an enormous undertaking, but we get it done thanks to the leadership of Guardians for New Futures and the many, many groups and individuals in the community who sponsor children,” Kaiser said.