In just over a week, volunteers for the Santa Claus Girls of Kent County were supposed to deliver holiday gifts to more than 2,500 families, but now those presents will come in the form of gift cards.
Friday, fire damaged the DeltaPlex Arena in Walker where the charity rents space to store more than 5,000 gifts, wrapped and ready for delivery.
Instead, it will take weeks to open them and discover how many are damaged by smoke, and how many can be saved.
There isn’t time before delivery December 9th, so now the charity is buying gift cards to distribute to 8,000 children this season.
Santa Claus Girls will save any undamaged gifts for delivery next year.