The community is coming through. That’s the consensus of the Young Professionals as they conduct their second Secret Santa drive to help needy children with warm winter clothes and toys.

Only $3,000 more is needed to meet the needs of the 650 children to make Christmas this year brighter and the New Year warmer.

“This is one of the things I love about this project,” Casey Baker of the Young Professionals said. “It shows how much people care about this community.”

Right now there is $8,000 cash in the bank and pledges are at $2,600. That combines with the $700 the program got Monday night when Buffalo Wild Wings donated a portion of their sales to the program, plus $600 in donations from customers that night.

“We had a pretty good turnout that night,” Baker said.

Thursday Casa Grande, a new Mexican restaurant in Burlington, will donate 10 percent of their entire day’s sales, both lunch and dinner, to the program.

That money is added to those individuals, businesses, school and church groups and civic organizations that are sponsoring children.

“If we could get to around $14,000 in cash, we would be in pretty good shape,” Baker said. “That would be basically another $3,000. I think (right now) we have enough to do something for everyone. Some kids who need coats and shoes might just get a coat, not shoes.

“We have to be judicious. If we get the $14,000, we can get all their needs.”

And if the Secret Santa program would go over the $14,000 mark, then that extra would go toward the waiting list of children.

“Some people turned in their forms a little late,” he said. “We had to cut it off somewhere. To do those extras we are going to need closer to $20,000. We had so many more names.”

Last holiday season the program got a late start after the Young Professionals agreed to step in when the former organizers could no longer conduct the Secret Santa program.

That Christmas the program provided for about 400 children. This year that demand was almost double.

“Last year it was such a late start,” Baker said. “This year we have a number of groups who have been working on our behalf for some time.”

One of those is the Workforce Development Resource Center that started gearing up for Secret Santa at the start of 2010.

“They had all employees save a dollar a week,” Baker said. “By the time you get to Christmas, there is $50 (from each employee.) And you have provided Christmas. It is a great idea.”