The Metro Nashville Police Department’s (MNPD) Horse Mounted Patrol Division will hold a toy drive this weekend at the Nashville Zoo as part of the department’s annual Christmas Basket Program.
“We need your help!!! This weekend we will be hosting our annual toy drive at the Nashville Zoo! These toys will be delivered by our fellow MNPD Officers to families and children across Nashville on Christmas Eve. Please help us fill our horse trailers for the kids,” MNPD’s Horse Mounted Patrol Division wrote in a Facebook post.
Metro police officers will collect toys in the zoo’s parking lot from 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Nashville Zoo is located at 3777 Nolensville Pike – six miles south of downtown.
Officers from our Mounted Patrol will be in the parking lot of the Nashville Zoo this Sat & Sun, 12/2 & 12/3, for our annual toy drive benefiting the MNPD's Christmas Basket Program. The zoo is offering free admission tickets for every new toy donated (limit of 2 per family). pic.twitter.com/57lL2vCPpA
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) November 28, 2023
Individuals are encouraged to bring new, unwrapped, and designed presents for children 12 and younger to the toy drive. The zoo will also have a retail cart with toys and plushes available so individuals can purchase a new toy and donate it to the drive instead of bringing one.
The zoo said it will offer complimentary admission tickets for every new toy donated, up to two tickets per family while supplies last. The tickets given out to those who donate will be good to use during normal zoo hours through May 1, 2024.
“Children are also invited to drop off letters to Santa Claus for the officers to deliver them to the North Pole in time for Christmas,” the zoo added in a press release.
MNPD’s annual Christmas Basket Program is a charity drive designed to collect toys and other items for area families needing holiday assistance. Metro police officers will deliver the donated toys to children on the morning of Christmas Eve.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Nashville Zoo” by Michael Hicks. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
