Rain couldn’t stop members of the Suffolk Police Department soliciting toys from shoppers at both of the city’s Walmart locations on Saturday.

By the end of the day, shoppers had donated enough toys to stuff the front passenger seat, back seat and trunk of two police cars and counting, surpassing the expectations of the officers who organized the event for the first time.

Shoppers poured out of the buildings with dolls, playsets, stuffed animals, board games and all manner of toys for Toys for Tots.

“We definitely had a good response,” Lt. Troy Shelton said at the North Main Street Walmart. “People have been reaching in their hearts and giving what they can. With all the bad that’s going around, it’s always good to see good prevail.”

The toys donated Saturday, as well as at other collection locations, will be added to the toys purchased with donations to the Suffolk News-Herald Cheer Fund. The Cheer Fund has a goal of $35,000 this year and still has quite a ways to go.

“Those toys really add up,” John Woleben, Suffolk’s Toys for Tots coordinator, said of all the donated toys.

The combination of Cheer Fund-purchased toys and donated toys is expected to help about 5,000 children in Suffolk receive gifts under the Christmas tree.

Next Saturday, the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office also is holding a toy drive at the North Main Street Walmart. The toys collected there will be given to the office’s partner-in-education, Elephant’s Fork Elementary School, to distribute to children it deems in need.

To donate to the Cheer Fund, send a check to P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23434 or bring it to our office, 130 S. Saratoga St., from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

We will list your donation in the newspaper, but it can be marked “anonymous” if you like. Donations may be made in honor of or in memory of someone. If you bring the check to our office, we’ll even take your picture as you hand it to one of our staff.

For more information on the Cheer Fund, call 934-9616.