Engebregtsen and her family attended St. Peter Parish, Oshkosh, Wis. and she went to St. Peter School.
"We were able to attend the school without paying tuition," she said. "The parents of our classmates, they were very generous. They exposed us to things that we wouldn't have been otherwise exposed to."
She was grateful for gifts her family had received when she was a child and after growing up, she fell into this toy tradition by accident.
"The first year we collected for Toys for Tots and when I went to go drop (the gifts) off, they said the deadline had already passed so I took them to Catholic Charities and they were really happy to get the gifts," Engebregtsen said.
Shortly after that, she received a call from then-Archbishop of Milwaukee Timothy M. Dolan, now cardinal, thanking her and asking if he could come to the bar to pick them up.
"It's exciting that he'd go out of his way to stop at a small neighborhood bar to thank us for what we've done," she said.
On that day she remembered Cardinal Dolan sitting at the bar and ordering a Budweiser.
"He told my bartender not to tell anybody and she said 'Why? You can't have a beer?' And he said, 'No, don't tell anyone it's Budweiser,'" Engebregtsen said, laughing at the memory.
The tradition of the archbishop coming to the bar to receive the toys continues with Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki.
"They're very charismatic members of the church," she said of Archbishop Listecki and Cardinal Dolan. "It's exciting for us, (but) we don't do it for that reason."
For Engebregtsen and the patrons at Kip's Inn, it's all about the families.
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"My customers ask me two months before we get the list, 'When are you going to get the list from Catholic Charities?'" she said. "They're really excited about it."
Anna Rollo, frequent customer at Kip's Inn, "adopted" three people for whom to buy gifts.
"The person wanted a pillow and a blanket; I ended up buying them a four pack of pillows and blankets," Rollo said, adding she did the same for another person and bought a shaving kit for the third person.
This was her first year being involved in the tradition.
"I was raised Catholic and this is my neighborhood watering hole and I know they got this here and it's a big thing to do," Rollo said. "This (bar) seems to be one that draws from this particular segment. It's working class people. A lot of us recognize each other; we're all from the neighborhood. We kind of look out for each other ... there's a lot of giving people in here."
Salvatorian Fr. Dave Bergner, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, appreciates the bar's outreach.