Shonna Williams has been relying on support from the Renton Salvation Army’s toy distribution for years, but thought she would be in a better financial situation this year. After getting sick and not being able to work, she said it was a surprise to find herself back at the toy drive needing gifts, but she’s grateful.

“I think it’s great,” Williams said Wednesday morning. “It’s an opportunity for me to get food and gifts for my family that I probably otherwise wouldn’t get because of my financial situation.”

Williams has three teenagers to support at home and two adult children outside the home. She first heard about the Salvation Army’s toy give-away years ago, when she was living in a shelter.

The Renton Salvation Army helped parents of more than 640 families fulfill their Christmas lists this year with their annual toy distribution, from the site of the former LA Fitness at Renton Center, earlier this week.

“We’ve actually gone a little bit above our goal,” said Capt. Chris Aird of the Salvation Army. “We’re reaching out and reaching more families this year than we did last year. So we’ve noticed that the community need has increased and so we want to increase those numbers as well.”

This year the toy drive lost their big donor Hasbro, Aird said. Support came from a toy drive that KOMO 4 hosted last week, Boeing, Fred Meyer and private donors.