Christmas morning will be a little brighter for many local children thanks to the efforts of the Dartmouth Police and Safe Zones New Bedford.

The local non profit partners with police departments from Dartmouth, Acushnet and Fairhaven every year for its Fill-a-Bus toy drive, which was held on Saturday, Dec. 10.

“It’s been very successful this year,” said Dartmouth Police Det. Kyle Costa. “Every year it gets bigger and bigger and it’s just a tremendous success.”

With hours still to go in the drive, Costa said they had already filled two full-sized school buses with toys, and were starting work on a third.

One Dartmouth resident, Dave Young, said he had come to Target by coincidence that day but still got into the spirit of giving, handing over bags full of GI Joes, Transformers, superhero toys, and “Legos, of course,” for the good of local kids.

“We just came for some Christmas lights and we saw it and decided to donate,” he said, adding that as a kid he had always been a “Lego guy.”

In addition to the in-person toy drive, for the first time the event featured a telethon hosted by Dartmouth Community Television intended to raise awareness and additional cash donations for the cause.

DCTV Director of Media Peter Chasse said he got the idea for the telethon last year as a way of helping older kids whose needs might go beyond toys to less tangible things, like cell phone plans.

The all-day program featured interviews with local figures like Dartmouth Youth Advocate Deloris Joseph, Superintendent Dr. Bonny Gifford, and Jerry J. Pinto, founder of Safe Zones.

Helping out with the telethon were students from the Dartmouth High media program, who operated cameras, manned the broadcast van, and even conducted live interviews — all under the instruction of Chasse and media teacher Robert Perrotti.

The cameras were rolling when a group of athletes from the Dartmouth 14U travel baseball team stopped by to hand over a big donation.

Coach Dan Gonsalves said that the team, which has played together for five years, raises money every year to play in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

He said that this year, the team raised more than it needed, and decided to give the extra money — totaling $1,000 — to the toy drive.

“We had way more than we needed so we came up with the idea to help out the kids,” Gonsalves said. “They’re all going into high school next year, so this is really the last year.”

Costa, who accepted the donation on behalf of the Dartmouth Police Athletic League which handled the cash donations, thanked the people of Dartmouth for all their generosity at the event.

“We always call it the Dartmouth Police toy drive, but it’s truly a community toy drive,” he said.