OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Pete's Garage Bar continues its toy drive tradition, donating 1,200 gifts to Head Start families in Oshkosh.
Every year, Pete Haferman, owner of Pete’s Garage Bar, hosts a present wrapping party.
“We wrap all the presents, we have people over, restaurants donate food,” he says. “Trying to have a good time and wrap.”
The presents– all 1200 of them– are part of Pete’s Garage’s Annual Toy Drive.
“We raise all the money at the bar, and then we just we buy all the presents, so my wife shops all year,” Haferman says. “People Venmo us, they just throw money in the jars, people bring envelopes in of money, and they just say, here, it’s for the jars.”
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After all the presents are wrapped, Pete’s Garage, the Army Reserve and volunteers hand them out at Head Start programs in Oshkosh.
This year, 152 kids got eight presents each.
“I know when they open the presents, they’re going to be so excited, and it’s going to be awesome,” Haferman says.
For Head Start families, it shows that the Oshkosh community is behind them.
“This is like a little something special that they were able to get,” Celia Arguello, a family resource specialist for Head Start, says. “Who knows if some of them would have been able to get all those gifts…It’s good for our parents to see how the community helps. That they’re not alone, that they have Pete’s Garage who thinks of them all year long.”
