WYOMISSING, Pa. – A Berks County business owner is giving Santa some help this holiday season. He’s teaming up with other businesses to give kids in need a bright Christmas.
“I love kids, I love being Santa, I love Christmastime,” said Freddy Vasquez, founder and Big Cheese of FXV Digital in Wyomissing.
Vasquez began the “Awesome Toy Drive” in 2019.
A New York-native who relocated to Berks County with his family, Vasquez says he’s grateful to the community for welcoming them and helping him grow his business, so he wanted to give something back.
“One of the major influences for me is Roberto Clemente,” said Vasquez. “He said, ‘if you have the opportunity to help people here on this earth and you don’t, you’re wasting your time.'”
The first year of the toy drive, 150 gifts were collected for underprivileged kids.
“In year 2, [we] actually contacted local business owners in the area and said, ‘hey, would you want to be part of this?’ and they were all about it,” Vasquez said.
Organizations like Concern for Kids, Olivet Boys & Girls Club, Children’s Home of Reading, Lighthouse and Mary’s Shelter request gifts for kids in need. Tags are then printed with those requests and put on trees for people to take names.
There are 40 trees at businesses throughout Berks County that will be collecting gifts for children over the next three weeks.
“So, we saw just kids asking for Chips Ahoy or a certain brand of chips that they like, you know? Because I guess that’s the only time that they could ever get something like that, which we take for granted,” said Vasquez.
Over the years, organizers collected 4,000 gifts and say they’re hoping that number continues to grow.
“I can’t do this by myself. I’m just a middleman, a beacon,” Vasquez said. “When you have 40 businesses in Berks County that care that much about kids, the kids are going to get the help and that’s the main goal of this whole thing.”