Christmas may be a few weeks away but two local organizations received a nice gift Monday evening.

The Driver Volunteer Fire Department and the Suffolk Humane Society each received $4,100 from the Driver Retail Merchants Association – the group that organized the annual Driver Days in October.

“We had a tremendous turnout throughout that weekend, and we are happy we could help these two groups,” association President Steven Wright said. “This event takes a lot of planning. We probably begin preparations six months in advance.”

During the weekend event, thousands crowded Driver’s downtown streets, enjoying food from a variety of vendors and touring downtown stores.

“It was a great event for our members,” Wright said. “Everyone did well. Even the churches on either end of the streets had success selling their items.”

The proceeds from the event went to the fire department and the humane society, and representatives from both organizations said the funds would be put to good use.

“We are going to put this toward our building fun and our spay and neuter fund,” Linda Shannon with the humane society said. “This will also help with our humane education and programs.”

Of the $4,100 each organization received, $500 came from the bike show, $600 came from the car show and the remaining $3,000 came from the Driver Days event itself.

As for Wright, the turnout and proceeds were an improvement over the 2008 event.

“It was better than last year,” Wright said. “We could not have been any happier with the results considering the economy over the past year.”