PUTNAM COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - A Putnam County church recently returned from western North Carolina to make sure children affected by Hurricane Helene can have a merry Christmas.

Leipsic St. Mary Catholic Church delivers $100K worth of toys for kids in North Carolina

St. Mary Catholic Church in Leipsic recently delivered around $100,000 worth of toys as Christmas gifts

St. Mary Catholic Church in Leipsic recently delivered around $100,000 worth of toys as Christmas gifts to the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry Christmas Angel Program in Arden, North Carolina. The Leipsic church made it their mission to bring Christmas joy to North Carolina as their holiday service project after hearing the Christmas Angel Program would assist over 2,500 children this year. Leading up to the delivery, there were 9 donation sites where people donated toys along with a $23,000 donation to the church for them to go out and buy new toys as well.

Leipsic St. Mary Catholic Church delivers $100K worth of toys for kids in North Carolina

The Leipsic church made it their mission to bring Christmas joy to North Carolina as their holiday service project.

Tuesday, we traveled to Leipsic to talk with church leaders about why this trip was so important.

"For our leadership, we really believe that helping those children, just to give them some hope and some joy after such devastation, that we could just bring them some joy for the Christmas season, so that's why I think it was important. But the first instinct was to help immediately, but I heard of all these people that were going down there, and they were being overwhelmed, so that's why we held off until the Christmas season," said Father Randy Giesige, pastor at Leipsic St. Mary Catholic Church.

Leipsic St. Mary Catholic Church delivers $100K worth of toys for kids in North Carolina

Church leaders also say they had so many toys that they used a semi to haul them to North Carolina.

Church leaders also say they had so many toys that they used a semi to haul them to North Carolina.

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