Our mission

to mobilize the power of first responders, volunteers, businesses, and schools to connect our community in providing compassion, joy, and love to children and families throughout the upstate by providing toys.

What We Do

Santa’s Heros

First Responder Toy Drive

Our effort is to ensure each child ages newborn through 12 years old receives 3-5 toys each, provided by first responders and volunteers.

Reignite hope

Fire Displacement Program

In 2024, LEO Santa launched the Reignite Hope Program. The program’s mission is to provide sparks of hope to children whose home was destroyed by fire. After a traumatic event, such as losing your home to fire, children experience and feel a sense of worry, fear, and distress. Our goal is to have first responders meet with the children and families and take a trip to a store to shop for replacement toys and needs. During this time, first responders have open communication with the children and family members letting them know there is a path forward and not all is lost. 

LEO Santa’s goals and mission are built upon three themes:

  1. Always leave smiling faces on families and children who are not as fortunate as others. In accomplishing this, we have teamed with the Greenville County School System to identify children within the school system that may not experience gifts during the holidays.

  2. Provide a bridge of trust and respect between the first responders community and those areas of our community facing hardships. Recently, we teamed with three African-American churches and worked with the congregational leaders to identify children in the community who needed joy.

  3. Provide an avenue for community members, schools, and businesses to join LEO Santa initiatives to experience the warm feeling of giving and contributing to a better world. 

We are supported by every law enforcement agency, fire department, and emergency management services in Greenville County! Also joining us is the SC Highway Patrol, SLED, SC Wildlife, and the SC Pardon, Parole, and Probation Office.

Our Story

On December 24, 2014, Jeremy Jones, a deputy sheriff with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, began his nightly patrol shift much like all his past patrols. As he drove around, he witnessed children playing in the poverty-stricken areas where he had answered calls for help from residents many times. He called Noel, his wife, and a discussion began regarding doing something to serve those kids on Christmas. Noel agreed and told Jeremy to go to a store and purchase toys. While he worked that night, Jeremy distributed the gifts to children he encountered. Over a six-year period, Jeremy and Noel continued this tradition to provide toys to children on Christmas Eve. Jeremy began approaching other deputies within the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office who also took it upon themselves to participate. Each year, Noel set up a toy collection box at her hair salon to request toy donations. She gave up tips and instead told her customers to buy toys. These simple compassionate gestures laid the foundation for what is now known throughout upstate South Carolina as LEO Santa.

From the grass roots effort of a few deputies, LEO Santa was officially recognized as a non-profit organization in 2020.