It is the season where it is "better to give than to receive." The Santa Clarita Valley Jaycees are working hard to give children in need a better holiday season.

The Jaycees will soon host the 11th annual Santa's Helpers event at Ice Station Valencia. This year's goal is to assist 200 local families by providing toys for the children.

The SCV Jaycees coordinate a month-long toy drive with 100 local businesses that host donation boxes around the SCV. They also coordinate efforts with other local non-profit agencies serving children, including the Child and Family Center, Michael Hoefflin Foundation and Single Mothers Outreach, to produce a list of children eligible to receive the toys. Once the toys are collected, organized and wrapped, the children are invited to attend a special party at Ice Station Valencia where the children will ice skate, eat, make crafts and meet Santa Claus. Each child leaves the event with a bag full of wrapped gifts.

n Businesses can request to have a donation box delivered to their offices to collect toys.

n Financial donations help defray the costs for the event and supplies. Additionally, they allow the SCV Jaycees to purchase gift certificates for the older children who are often overlooked in the toy drive. Donations can be made by clicking on the Santa's Helpers link at www.scvjaycees.com.

n There are many opportunities to volunteer for this event. Volunteers get together to organize groups to drop the donation boxes off and pick them up once they are full. After all of the toys are collected, volunteers sort and wrap the gifts. Volunteers are also needed the day of the event at Ice Station Valencia to help.

For information on Santa's Helpers, contact: Matthew L. Himlin, 2009 Santa's Helpers event chairman by e-mail at matt@himlinrealty.com or (661) 816-7688. For information on the SCV Jaycees contact: Lindsey Kontra, vice president of marketing, JCI Santa Clarita Valley, www.scvjaycees.com,  (661) 600-5822.