Highway Patrol units arrive with toys at the Unity Shoppe

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - What looked like a motorcade for a special visitor pulled up at the Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara Wednesday. It was a row of California Highway Patrol units loaded with toys.

The CHiPs for Kids program brought in about 500 toys. They were all collected in the last month.

The CHP office in Goleta accepted toys in their office as one drop off location. They also set up a table at a nearby Walgreens to ask the public to join in.

Officer Jonathan Gutierrez said many shoppers came out of the store with up to four toys for the drive and left them with the donation team.

Unity Shoppe Director Tom Reed says they are now able to add those toys to their selection for children coming in this week with their families who are in need of food, clothing and gifts.

Officers also put their own money in and then went shopping for toys to add to the total.

The toys included board games, dolls, cars and starter musical instruments.

Last weekend the annual Unity telethon took place in a four-hour show on KEYT NewsChannel 3 to raise money for the nonprofit.