CHRISTMAS JOY
Groups join forces to provide toys, holiday cheer, to children
Hundreds of toys will be given out to local children over the next few days after several organizations joined together to make Christmas easier during the pandemic.
Three organizations, Miss Ida’s House of Care & Love, The Giving Team Inc. and Celebrating Teachers, partnered with several churches to collect toys. As of Thursday, they had over 350 toys and were on course to meet their goal of 500, said Karen Sanders, founder of Celebrating Teachers.
Around 210 toys will be given to families already registered for the Sugarplum Christmas Celebration, which will be held Saturday during The Giving Team’s monthly “Food for Thought” event in the parking lot next to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore at the corner of Church Street and Malvern Avenue.
The rest of the toys will be divided up between several places, with many going to Mountain Pine, Sanders said, noting the idea for the toy drive came from
Janice Davis, the founder of The Giving Team.
“I came up with the idea to do something for the east end of town,” Davis said. “I talked to Lisa (Regina Wade, founder of Miss Ida’s House) and reached out to Karen.”
Davis noted there are many people in town with money, and many people in town who are needy.
“In the community where Hot Springs has 44-plus banks, there’s wealth, and there’s poor people. Right now the pandemic has hit the needy and undeserved hard. Working- class people have been hit hard,” she said.
“We’re in a pandemic where we all should help out. It’s about reaching down and pulling up,” Davis said, noting the plan is to make the toy drive an annual event.
The group held a toy drive last week and a big donor was No Limit Rider, an African American motorcycle club. The toys were dropped off at Camp Mulberry, and on Wednesday, around 15 volunteers from the three organizations, and several churches, got together at the camp to wrap the gifts.
Sanders said in addition to the 350 toys they wrapped, more toys have since been sent from Tulsa, Okla., where Sanders lives.
Celebrating Teachers is an international organization based out of Tulsa, but Sanders said when the pandemic hit, they were unable to continue their work outside of America. Sanders, a Hot Springs native, recently started helping out in Mountain Pine prior to the pandemic.
“International trave l stopped, so our focus became ‘What can we do there in Hot Springs?” she said.
The Mountain Pine toys will start being handed out today by the Mountain Pine Police Department and teachers in the Mountain Pine School District, Sanders said, noting she hopes to expand her partnership with Davis.
Sanders said she is impressed with “Food for Thought,” and how it helps the homeless population in Hot Springs, and wants to establish a similar program in Tulsa. Her plan is to have Davis travel to Tulsa “to develop resources for the homeless.” Sanders is also working on establishing similar programs in Plainview and Bryant.
Wade, of Miss Ida’s House — a care house for elderly people — said Davis pitched the idea of the toy drive to her and asked if she would participate. “Oh yes, we’re running with that,” Wade said was her response.
The 210 children who will get toys on Saturday are preregistered. Wade said her clerk was the one who took the phone calls to register the families and “I was excited every time the phone rang.”
One of the volunteers helping wrap gifts was the Rev. Peaches Smith of Haven United Methodist Church. “I think it’s great. Everyone here has a purpose and a calling,” Smith said, and those who helped proved their love of their community.
“I can tell you I love you all day long, but until I show it, it means nothing,” Smith said.
Amy Richardson, with Recovery Point Ministry, who also helped wrap toys, said this was “something that is needed in the town. Christmas is the giving season, it’s our ability to give back in a town that needs it so desperately.”
Cassie Shelor, with Celebrating Teachers, said she was happy with how the toy drive went.
“I think we did pretty well,” she said, noting the toy drive “had a pretty good turnout.” She said she supported the project because “with the way the economy is, people are out of work. There’s families in need who can’t provide the wants.”
While many places help supply people with things they need, “it’s the extras that make kids feel normal, so to speak,” Shelor said.
“That’s what we want to do, just make life a little better,” Davis said.