RESIDENTS DONATE AS JOLLY TROLLEY MAKES ITS ROUNDS

Utilizing the city’s Hometown Trolley, city officials drove to various landmarks in Santa Clarita during their Jolly Trolley Food Drive on Saturday, accepting food donations for the SCV Food Pantry all along the way.

Throughout the day, and at locations such as Central Park and the Valencia Town Center, residents from all over Santa Clarita visited one of the trolley’s five destinations in order to hand off everything from canned food to diapers to even a large donation of cologne.

“We normally take the trolley during the holidays, and I saw an ad in the paper this morning and thought donating would be kind of fun,” said Karl Schmill, a Saugus resident who donated food Saturday. “You look at what we’ve been going through this past nine months, there’s a lot of people that need help; so we’ve been trying to do this and that stuff we would normally do, if we were going out to restaurants and stuff.”

Alex Porlier, city of Santa Clarita administrative analyst, said the idea for the event was to ensure people were able to spread holiday cheer.

“I’m just excited we get to do something this year, and I’m actually amazed at how many people are showing up for this,” said Porlier. “I mean, this was fairly short notice, kind of put together because we couldn’t do the light tour, and we’re getting a lot of people just driving up, popping open the trunk and we’re pulling out donations.”

Closing in on goal

Porlier said that, usually, when the city does the holiday light tour using the trolley — going around town and viewing all the various holiday lights that have been set up — they get close to 2,000 pounds of food. And as of 1 p.m., the city was once again closing in on its goal, said Porlier.

“This means (people in need) can use their hard-earned money for some other essentials,” said Porlier. “Anything and everything is helpful.”

Those who missed Saturday’s opportunity but still wish to donate during this pandemic holiday, can visit the SCV Food Pantry’s website at scvfoodpantry.org/.

Dan Watson/ The Signal (Left) Santa Clarita Transit Road Supervisor Keith Carr organizes boxes and bags of donations during the Santa Clarita Jolly Trolley Food Drive at Westfield Valencia Town Center, one of its five stops Saturday. (Above) Carr, aboard the Jolly Trolley, and Administrative Analyst Alex Porlier collect donated food at the mall for the SCV Food Pantry.