The anticipated Holiday Hope toy giveaway has been moved from this Saturday to next Saturday, Dec. 23 at 11 a.m.

Organized by Jake Rowley, midwest team leader for the United Cajun Navy (UCN), he is searching for more sponsors. So far, he has gotten $8,000 of financial sponsors and would like another $7,000.

“We are bringing $750,000 worth of toys,” Rowley said.

The $15,000 of sponsorships will cover the expenses – transportation and storage – UCN has in bringing the toys to Marshalltown. Rowley said there are four levels of sponsorships – $4,000 is platinum; $2,000, gold; $1,000, silver; and $500, bronze.

Taking the financial value of the toy shipment into account, Rowley used an example of someone giving $10 actually equaling a $100 donation to the mission, because the toys are donated. He raised $10,000 for the Coats for the Community giveaway on Nov. 11, but the financial value of the event was $1.2 million.

“Seven businesses would be great,” he said. “Three giving $2,000 and then one giving $1,000 would be more beautiful.”

The toys will arrive on 12 pallets in a semi truck. Also included will be four or five pallets of coats for people who did not receive one in the coat giveaway. Rowley said they will have other winter gear, as well, such as gloves, scarves and hats.

He said people will be able to get two gifts per child. Depending on how the giveaway goes, the number of gifts per child might change. Parents will also be able to choose their gifts. Rowley said the giveaway will be set up similar to the coat giveaway, except the toys will be separated into age groups. While he does not know exactly what toys will be on the semi truck, he is sure some of the hot ticket toys of the Christmas season will be present.

“Generally people donate the newer toys,” Rowley said. “[We should have] lots of Legos, Barbies, WWE toys. There will be toys for every age group up to middle school.”

Taking the coat giveaway event into consideration, Rowley wants to help make sure people are honest about the need.

“This should hold back a huge influx of people,” he said. “We are not doing income requirements or applications or credit checks, but they do need to bring a [SNAP] card, WIC card, Section 8 housing, some piece of information that proves they are on government assistance.”

The white Iowa-EBT cards, which are typically issued by the state to families using school district information, will not be accepted. Rowley said they will accept Social Security proof or letters from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services stating a household is on some type of assistance.

“Based on the coat giveaway, we have to keep control and make sure people do not take advantage,” he said. “Our awesome donors make this happen, and we don’t want them to be taken advantage of.”

Rowley said people will not have to be residents of Marshalltown or Marshall County to receive toys.

“We’re not going to limit where people live,” he said. “We are looking to help all of the Midwest eventually. If they are willing to drive here to get gifts for their kids, they deserve it.”

Usually, Rowley would have no problem in obtaining the sponsors, but he has been leading an effort in Sac County to find David Schultz.

The 53-year-old trucker from Wall Lake was reported missing on Nov. 21 by his wife, Sarah. Rowley said the United Cajun Navy conducts search and rescue operations throughout the country. Gathering volunteers, UCN searched 116,000 acres of land in the area he went missing, looking for clues or signs of Schultz.

While the search for Schultz is on hold for now, Rowley said, UCN is putting together a reward for information which leads to Schultz’s location.

“We’re just searching for information now,” he said. “Somebody has to know something. The next big thing is the reward fund until we have a new area to search. It has been overwhelming the search we have done. We are not going to search new areas until we have a piece of information.”

In the search process, Rowley said they found Mike Riesberg of Rockwell City, another man from the area who went missing one week before. Riesberg was found dead.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.