Santa's sleigh will tip upside down and dump 14,000 toys into the heart of southwestern North Dakota.

The toys will come courtesy of the "Today" show, which is holding its 13th annual toy drive down on the plaza in New York City.

The "Today" show accepted an application made by Adams County Social Services on behalf of more than 10,000 children in 13 drought-stricken counties.

The "Today" show will send the toys by semi truck one day next week, said Adams County eligibility worker Cindy Hehn.

Hehn spearheaded the application after having watched the toy drive for years. Kim Schalesky, a member of the community hospital's wellness team, also helped.

Hehn said she'd long wondered how her agency could apply to receive toys from the televised drive, in which "Today" viewers bring toys to the plaza and get on television and corporations make highly publicized contributions.

Hehn said she sent in the application in November. They heard Wednesday that Adams County's application had gotten the thumbs up.

She said the "Today" show doesn't make small drops and requires that any drop serve 10,000 children or more.

She said she contacted nine other North Dakota counties and three in neighboring South Dakota to get the necessary number of children. She said the "Today" organizers probably don't understand how sparse it is up here and much geography the application had to cover to reach that many children.

The toys will be dropped off in Hettinger and then employees of Farm Credit Services will truck and trailer them out to the other counties.

Hehn said each county will figure out its own distribution plan.

As for Adams County, she said she wants to make the toys available to everyone.

Hehn said many Adams County residents are elderly people getting by on fixed incomes and if they want toys to wrap for their grandchildren, so much the better.

"We want to spread joy to more than to kids," she said.

She said the drought has had a long-standing effect on the region and "it's getting tougher."

Besides toys, she requested electronics and books for children ages 1 through 18, but no clothing, primarily because she didn't know how to organize a clothing distribution so quickly.

"I'm still in shock," she said. "Hopefully we can get this together."

She said the toys will go out to the counties as they come and getting them festively wrapped will be up to parents and others.

"There's no way I can wrap 14,000 presents," she said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 1-888-303-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)