Folks in Suffolk really know how to make a difference at Christmas.

In the first half of a good-natured competition between the Suffolk Police Department and the Suffolk Sheriff’s Department this weekend, police officers collected more than two police cruisers full of donated toys in support of the annual Toys for Tots campaign.

The city’s Sheriff’s Department has a similar collection effort planned for this coming Saturday, although deputies plan to park their cruiser at only one location — the Walmart on North Main Street — and to distribute the toys they collect there through Elephant’s Fork Elementary School, which works with the Sheriff’s Department as a Partner in Education.

Suffolk’s law enforcement community has approached the toy drive in a lightheartedly competitive way, but the causes they’re supporting are real, and the idea behind them is to make sure that every child in Suffolk gets a toy for Christmas.

The Suffolk News-Herald’s Cheer Fund exists for the same purpose. Each year, the Cheer Fund raises the money that is used to purchase toys for the Toys for Tots distribution here in Suffolk. 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.

The Cheer Fund has a goal of $35,000 this year, and there is still a long way to go to reach that goal. We’re confident that the generous people of Suffolk will pull us through, though. They always do.

To donate to the Cheer Fund, send a check to P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23439 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.