VINCENNES, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — More than 150 less-fortunate Knox County children will receive a Christmas gift this year thanks to the employees at Good Samaritan Hospital.

According to a release from Good Samaritan, employees took part in the Giving Tree program this year to assemble hundreds of gifts ranging from clothing to toys, games, crafts, and other necessities. Those gifts will go to 170 less-fortunate children from the Vincennes community, North Knox and South Knox elementary schools.

“The overwhelming amount of support our caregivers provide for the children in our community is phenomenal,” Rob McLin, President and CEO of Good Samaritan, said. “Every year, our employees go above and beyond to ensure these kids have gifts to open on Christmas morning.”

The Giving Tree program has been a hospital tradition going on 30 years now, with employees choosing tags that include things like the child’s clothing size, interests, favorite colors and wishes. The employees then purchase gifts for that child.

Once the gifts have been assembled, representatives from the area schools involved will pick them up before notifying parents, who can then retrieve the gifts from the schools to then be opened for Christmas.

Additionally, employees donated items to be used in the distribution of 213 Christmas stockings to residents of local nursing homes. The stockings contained items like socks, lip balm, lotion, word search books, and more.

This year, Good Samaritan employees also donated care packages to send to deployed troops that are from Vincennes and the surrounding area.

“We are happy to announce that we have been successful in putting together over 50 gift bags with various snacks, toiletries, and handwritten cards,” Registered Nurse Shania Alvis said. “We also received a lot of devotionals and prayer cards to encourage the troops during this time. I want to give a huge thanks to the Good Samaritan family for helping us support these brave men and women.”