BUCHANAN — When walking into Wesner Automotive in Buchanan, one will be met by a sight of dozens, if not hundreds, of children’s toys.

Pink and blue basketballs, dolls, and action figures cover a large section of the office floor, with only bits of the floor below peeking through the blanket of toys in some areas.

“By the time we take these toys to donation on [Dec.] 15, there is no space in here,” Mickey Frost, of Wesner Automotive, said.

Wesner Automotive, in downtown Buchanan, is once again participating in collecting toys for Toys for Tots to be donated to Redbud Area Ministries, after Frost’s father, Gene Wesner, started the program 33 years ago. This year, Wesner has been collecting presents for more than 200 children in Buchanan, and will be collecting gifts up until Christmas Eve, though RAM will be collecting on Dec. 15.

For more than three decades, the people of Buchanan have been donating either money or toys to the auto shop, which has brought the community together, Frost and Wesner said.

The reason they believe the program has been a success and inspired community giving is that Frost and Wesner ensure that the toys and money they collect stays local, and goes toward the children of Buchanan.

“We used to work with a set Toys for Tots, but when they came to pick up the toys, they took them over into Indiana,” Wesner said. “So, we said, ‘we’re done with that,’ and we started our own.”

Frost said that giving to the Wesner Toys for Tots campaign has become a tradition for many Buchanan families, and that hearing the stories from the people who give has always been what has made facilitating the program worth it for her.

Some people who received presents from Wesner’s program have returned as adults to give back to the children, saying that they are filling an important need in the city, Frost said. Others have donated in memory of lost loved ones.

One story in particular that has always stuck with Frost took place in 2012, when Robert Thomson, a Niles man who worked in Buchanan, approached her on the distribution day of the toys. He asked her if she would like to grow the program, as he had contacts to help her do so.

At the time, Frost did not have time to go over the specifics with him, and told him she would get in contact with him in a few months, after the holidays and audit season. Thomson agreed, and took out his checkbook right then and there to donate $500 to the Toys for Tots program.

“I was kind of shocked,” Frost said. “I told him, ‘Bill, you’ve already made a donation.’ But he said, ‘I know. I want to do this.’”

After the holiday season came and went, Frost reached out to Thomson to discuss growing the program as he suggested, but she learned from his daughter that he had passed due to cancer.

“He knew at the time he talked to me that he had cancer, so he wrote that check and gave to the kids,” Frost said. “That kind of story, that kind of generosity, it really sticks with you.”

It is stories like Thomson’s that remind Frost how important Wesner Automotive’s program is to the Buchanan community, and how it can inspire generosity.

“It is amazing how the community comes together to make this happen,” Frost said. “I’m often touched by the stories I hear, and every year, seeing this place so full of toys, it’s wonderful.”