PLAINVILLE, Conn. -- Toys for Tots has extended its deadline for toy collections to Thursday.

The organization said its goal this year was to collect 80,000 toys.

Before Channel 3 Eyewitness News ran a story on Toys for Tots last week, the organization had only received about 40,000. Since the story ran, about 22,000 more toys have been donated.

With the new deadline looming, officials said they’re still about 15,000 toys short of their goal.

Single mothers Cheryl Heft and Michelle Jones each have four children. Each of them even has a set of twins.

Jones said she was laid off from The Hartford last year and has been unemployed ever since.

“No tree, no toys, no nothing, so I'm so thankful for this,” she said.

Heft is on unpaid maternity leave.

“I don't have anything right now,” she said.

But the long wait was over when they were able to get toys Monday through the Toys for Tots program.

Toys for Tots began handing out the toys it had collected on Monday. Toys were expected to be handed out from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Navy Marine Corps Base in Plainville.

Officials said families started lining up at about 8 a.m. in anticipation.

Though the deadline has been extended, officials said, toys would no longer be collected at Toys "R" Us locations.