Andy Ceperley is the chief organizer and fundraiser for the Christmas project that delivered gifts and turkeys to residents of the low-income apartments Sunday. Ceperley credits the army of volunteers who make the project happen each year.

"There are four churches involved," Ceperley said. "Elizabeth Memorial United Methodist, Rock Lake Presbyterian, Kanawha United Presbyterian and First Presbyterian -- and there are 10 to 12 people who work behind the scenes, then 30 who deliver the gifts and turkeys.

"We work together to give gifts to the 220 children and turkeys to all 150 families in the apartment complex," Ceperley said. "We raise the money throughout the year, about $8,000."

The manager of the apartment works with the volunteers to give them an up-to-date list of children. Four shoppers buy the gifts.

Chris Rogillio, who works with the youth group at Kanawha United, coordinates the gift purchasing and sorting.

"Chris gets one of the ladies circles to do the wrapping for her," Ceperley said. "Half of them are wrapped at Rock Lake Presby, half at Kanawha United. The youth groups help, too."

Rogillio organizes the gifts by apartment, with gender- and age-appropriate gifts clearly marked and bagged for each family.

The group met in the parking lot of Fruth Pharmacy at 1:45 p.m. and headed up the hill to the apartments at 2 p.m. They went door-to-door, delivering something to every apartment.

Each church took one corner of the apartment complex, and the well-orchestrated delivery teams distributed bags of gifts and a turkey to each unit. Four "Santas," one from each church, were careful not to be seen by children from other quadrants of the delivery area.

"They make sure only one Santa is visible from the windows at a time," Ceperley said. "Each team gets a route list, and gets their bags of gifts." It took less than two hours to make the deliveries.

This year, Santa's helpers carried wrenches in their pockets to facilitate a generous donation from one volunteer.

"We have a new opportunity," said the upbeat Ceperley . "Someone bought 30 bicycles. We thought, 'How in the world will we do this? How will we deliver these?'" Ceperley contacted Enterprise Rentals and the company loaned two cargo vans for delivery day.

"Wal-Mart put the bikes together, but I told the drivers to put a wrench in their pocket just in case," Ceperley said. "Santa's elves were well equipped."

"The system has improved over the years. We're respectful of volunteer time," Ceperley said. "The shopping, the wrapping, making sure we get the right gifts to the right kids, we want it to run smoothly. Success means we make less than two or three mistakes, but we try not to make any."

The low-income apartments, originally run by the Presbyterian Church, now are administered by a non-profit corporation that also manages Brooks Manor and Agsten Manor senior housing.

Reach Sara Busse at sara.bu...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1249.