ARLINGTON — Shoppers at this year’s Toy Store for families in need no longer had to ascend three flights of stairs to browse through the selection.

While Tina Davis and her fellow Toy Store organizers deeply appreciate the use of the Arlington American Legion Post 76 building in previous years, the fact that the Arlington Boys & Girls Club allowed families to shop on the ground floor Dec. 18 made a huge difference. Davis estimated that the Toy Store served at least 700 children this year, up from roughly 600-plus last year, with donations of more than $7,800 in cash, checks and gift cards.

She credited virtually all the area banks with chipping in, and cited businesses ranging from Arlington family Chiropractic to the Grocery Outlet for staging toy drives.

The Stillaguamish Tribe supplied $1,400 and 50 gifts, while the Stillaguamish Athletic Club presented 62 toys and 558 gift cards.

Arlington Hardware gave $500, while Arlington Rotary supplied 38 toys and 400 gift cards.

Not only did Walmart donate $1,500, but for every nine purchases made for the Toy Store, they gave the 10th one for free.

Symmetry Chiropractic generated $1,000, while Davis estimated that nearly $8,000 came from Environmental Abatement Services.

With so many contributions, it took the Toy Store’s crew of 20 volunteers from Dec. 14 to set up the shopping area at the Boys & Girls Club, as well as to sort and move the toys from their storage at the Arlington Legion building.

Davis explained that the Toy Store’s shoppers are referred by the Apple Preschool, the Community Resource Centers of Arlington and Darrington, the Department of Social and Health Services and the Arlington Community Food Bank.

“Rotary, the Stillaguamish Athletic Club and the Stillaguamish Tribe were new participants this year, and they did great,” Davis said. “We still want to raise awareness and help create a smoother path for families to use our services, but it’s a far cry from three years ago, when we were first figuring out how we’d pull all this off.”

Among the Toy Store’s targeted age and gender groups, older kids remain difficult to shop for, with older girls from 14-18 proving to be the greatest challenge this year.

“We’ve bought a lot of wallets and purses, and then put gift cards in them, so they can pick out what they’d like for themselves,” Davis said. “This community really wants to take care of its kids. It’s all about letting these kids know that they community cares about them.”