In December of 1948, the Lexington Woman’s’ Club and the Lexington Junior Woman’s Club created an amazing thing – the Santa Claus Truck. The Santa Claus Truck was a coordinated community effort to provide food and toys to those in need at Christmas. There were any number of individual efforts at the time trying to do the same sort of thing – churches and civic clubs doing what they could with what they had. But the magic behind the Santa Claus Truck was that it brought all of these individual efforts together, creating a synergy that only comes when like minds and hearts collaborate. The Santa Claus Truck served 150 families that first year and a tradition was born.

Over the years, the Santa Claus Truck became the Rockbridge Christmas Basket Program. There have been some changes since 1948 – in 2024, we served 3,453 people, including 1,215 children. But a lot has stayed the same. We still deliver healthy food and toys at a time of year when they’re needed most. Our operational costs are razor thin. And we still rely on the generosity of others, both individuals and organizations, to do what we do. We are truly thankful for every penny and every second we are given and consider ourselves fortunate to live in a place as wonderful and caring as Rockbridge County.