School Committee Chairman Shaun Galligan wasn’t initially planning to host one of Warwick’s first major events of the holiday season, but that’s how it turned out. 

On the night of Black Friday, Galligan kicked off the holiday season with horse-drawn carriage rides throughout Massasoit Terrace, in the northern part of the city.

Initially, Galligan planned an event for family and neighbors, then it mushroomed.

“My wife and I love doing things in the neighborhood for all the neighbors, and we both have a very large family and great friends,” Galligan said. “And then more and more people started getting invited. And I said we should turn it into a toy drive.”

Instead of money, Galligan asked for donations of unwrapped toys to give to the Warwick Boys & Girls Clubs.

“It just organically grew, and within 48 hours, hundreds of people were already invited,” he said.

The event, according to Galligan, garnered several hundred toys for Warwick residents in need and saw attendance in the triple figures.

“There were a ton of kids from every school in the neighborhood,” Galligan said. “Be it Norwood, Holliman, Lippitt, Wyman. It was a great event, and obviously the Boys & Girls Clubs, they’re a great community partner.”

In addition to the horse-drawn carriage, the Warwick Fire Department also brought both a truck and Santa to the event.

Galligan, along with his father, Frank, School Committee member-elect Sean Wiggins, and other major sponsors, delivered the presents to the Warwick Boys & Girls Clubs last Tuesday.

Boys & Girls Clubs CEO Lara D’Antuono said that the gifts would be able to help families who cannot afford to buy gifts for their children this Christmas.

Rather than simply giving the families the gifts, D’Antuono said, the club’s gift-giving program is designed for parents to pick out multiple gifts that they know their children would enjoy so that they can still provide them with a normal Christmas despite their economic situation.

“We wanted to give the dignity back to the parents,” D’Antuono said. “So we’re not just giving parents what a kid wanted, but what your kid wanted.”

The gifts gathered from the holiday launch, D’Antuono said, would certainly help them reach that goal.

“This was just wonderful,” D’Antuono said.