Christmas carols filled the Elks Lodge hall as people placed unwrapped toys on a small platform and Santa spoke with children in a big chair next to a lit Christmas tree.

"We did better than we expected," Shannon Maxim said during the first ever Holiday Hope Raiser in Memory of Hailey Jean Pease.

The hundreds of collected toys were donated to Children's Hospital Boston. Families with sick children will be able to give the gifts for Christmas presents.

Hailey, who spent many long weeks at Children's Hospital, passed away in July just 10 days after her 8th birthday, following a three-month battle with leukemia. She was set to enter the second grade this year at Minot Forest Elementary School.

Children's Hospital Boston sets up a "store" with all of the toys it receives during the holiday season and parents with children in the hospital can choose gifts and wrap them for Christmas, Maxim said.

Maxim, Hailey's mother, planned the Hope Raiser along with Hailey's father, Richard Pease, and family-friend Jessica Travers.

It was called the Hope Raiser, not a fundraiser, because the family aimed to bring hope to the families who are spending the holidays at the hospital.

The event came together rather quickly. It was a way, Maxim said, for the family to find a way to get through the holidays after enduring such a devastating loss. Hailey also left behind 12-year-old sister Mary Jane Woods.

Maxim and helpers from the community delivered the toys to the hospital on Monday.

The organizers said they were grateful for the Onset Fire Department's Box 5 Association, which held its last of three holiday "Stuff A Fire Truck" toy drives on Saturday and donated everything, including monetary donations, raised that day to the Hope Raiser.

"We wouldn't have half as much" if not for Box 5, Travers said.

Box 5 president and Onset firefighter John Gordon, Lieutenant John Robbins, and Deputy Jeff Osswald helped deliver the toys to Boston.

"It was a magical thing," Osswald said. "It restored my faith [in the holidays]. The holidays are so commercialized now and this was something that 100% for kids and their families that weren't able to go out and shop."

In addition to the toys, $335 worth of gift cards were donated.

It certainly wasn't easy organizing such an event so soon after Hailey passed, Maxim said, "but it's worth it."

Maxim said organizers at the hospital were "shocked to see how much we actually brought in." She hopes to make the Hope Raiser an annual event.

"I really appreciate all the support from this community," Maxim added. "I hope they'll continue to help me help families."