LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thousands of toys and gifts are headed to western Kentucky in cars, buses and semis.
"The tornado destroyed a lot, but it didn't cancel Christmas. We think this will lift up our community with the love of Christmas, particularly the children who have lost so much," Graves County Judge-Executive Jesse Perry said in a statement.
Volunteers distributed toys, gift cards and four-day supplies of food, water and basic necessities in Mayfield, Ky. bright and early Tuesday in what the city is calling "Operation Christmas Tuesday."
Kentucky First Lady Britainy Beshear's statewide toy drive has closed for donations so it can begin distributing toys at five sites or what is being called Christmas storefronts. The sites will offer parents a chance to shop for toys for their children on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT.
"There's those that have lost completely everything, have no home to go back to," Casey Hammons with Hope House Ministries said. "Some, maybe just lost their property, items inside the home, that might have included Christmas gifts. Some have damage and they can't go back to the house just yet."
Hope House Ministries has transformed its church warehouse into a giant toy store for store victims.
Gov. Andy Beshear said the toy drive brought in truckloads of donations from all over the country for western Kentucky kids who lost their homes and possessions in the tornadoes that leveled part of the state just two weeks before Christmas.
"This world has shown us that they love us," Beshear said during a Monday news briefing.
"It's amazing because these kiddos, they've seen things that we can't imagine," Beshear said. "And it's heartbreaking. But, thanks to the generosity of not just this state but the entire country, they will now have a real Christmas, full of so many gifts."
Jefferson County Public Schools held a "Stuff The Bus" event that filled 19 JCPS buses with donations for tornado victims. The buses filled with food, diapers, formula, personal hygiene items and more leave Tuesday morning. They will dropped off the donations to Glendale, Kentucky's old East Hardin Middle School in Hardin County on Tuesday.
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