Down to six good toes and still fighting to get his old life back, Terry Cronin received a release from his doctor to walk again a day before he needed to help Santa deliver presents. Cronin didn’t waste time complaining.

“I need to get a T-shirt that says ‘This little piggy went to market and hasn’t come back,’” he joked Wednesday evening while preparing Christmas baskets for Big Horn Basin residents in need of assistance.

He was told to keep his walks under a half-mile and then to rest. After being on his back and keeping his feet elevated ever since an August incident, Cronin is happy to be up and able to get around. But there won’t be any skiing or flip flops in the near future.

The areas covered with skin grafts are still very “fragile,” he said, and there is one toe that still may need to be removed. The burns he received from being electrocuted were fourth-degree plus (meaning the inside of his foot and bones were burned through), but he is thankful to be alive.

“What kept me going were Jan and Keely,” he said of his wife and daughter.

The accident didn’t keep the couple from trying to improve the Christmas basket process. The food baskets, which were made in cooperation with Blair’s Super Market, have been very similar for many years. Jan wants to improve the success of the effort in the future by including new food products, recipes and possibly even disposable roasting pans.

They have also decided to include diapers in the baskets for folks with infants.

“The community has been awesome as far as donations,” Terry said. “Our goal isn’t to have a bank account. It’s to help those in need.”

While the Powell program is well funded, other communities in the Basin with more need aren’t as lucky, said Nick Martin, director of the area Toys for Tots program. The U.S Marine Corps program has been delivering toys — “a message of hope” to less fortunate youngsters — since 1947, according to their mission statement.

This year has been rough for some towns, like Greybull.

“Since I’ve been doing this, it’s their neediest year,” Martin said. “We wish we could have more counties, but we just can’t do it.”

Martin served in the Marines, doing two tours in the Middle East while stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona. He’s now a postman in Cody — and he knows how to deliver. Martin has been organizing the area’s program for four years, despite not being able to take time off to attend to the project that puts thousands of toys in the hands of the needy each year.

“We’re never allowed to take vacation this time of year,” he said of the long days of postal work. “But, you know, these children aren’t going to have Christmas if we don’t do it.”

More than 800 children in the Big Horn Basin received assistance from the Toys for Tots program this year. Even more families received food assistance.

Jan and Terry Cronin are two of the six people involved in the Powell Christmas Basket program. Howard and Ann Sanders, and Donna Putney and Mike Giese lead the all-volunteer effort every year.