Gifts of the season: In Rankin, Toys for Tots brings surprises
Yes, this is a story about the Goodfellows Fund, which provides toys, but Christmas shouldn’t be all about the loot. Among other things, it can be about community. So we’ll get to the toys, but first, let’s party.
Invite the young families of Braddock and Rankin to a party, and you’d better reserve a big room. This year’s Family Care Connection holiday feast for those two towns drew more than 300 people for dinner, dancing and Santa Claus. Families with kids warmed the Woodland Hills School District Administration Building on a cold Thursday evening.
For Cierra Watson, 3, the big moment was seeing her “best friend,” a 40-year-old mom the tot inexplicably refers to as “French fry.” Or maybe the dancing. Or the hugging. Perhaps the coloring.
“She’s been trying to get to her friends from school who are in the corner since we got in here,” said her mother, Chanelle Harris, 29, of Rankin. But she kept getting distracted.
The evening’s activities include writing letters to Santa. And then, in a week or so, the Family Care Connection will quietly pass out presents to the parents. The PostGazette’s PG Charities Goodfellows Fund supports the Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive by collecting donations to buy toys, including some of those distributed in Rankin and Braddock.
Cierra and her sister, Aniya, 9, “have the shortest lists on earth,” said Mrs. Harris. The family is lucky, too, to have two breadwinners. Mrs. Harris works at Dollar General, and her husband in public works. They can afford their kids’ wish lists.
The biggest challenge is adding a few Christmas surprises — the kind that make memories. That’s where Toys for Tots comes in.
“What did you get from here last year?” Mrs. Harris asked her daughters. “You wanted some books, wasn’t it?” she asked Aniya. “Cierra, she got like three baby dolls, and Aniya got a couple of chapter books. And, oh, yeah, I remember, it was like this book that you could, like, glitter — it was like a glittery marker squeezy pencil thingee.”
“It was like a troll thingee,” added Aniya. A book about trolls.
“It was a furry book, but you opened it upward, and it was glitter, like pencils, but you squeeze them,” said Mrs. Harris.
“And then when I was done, Cierra took all that glitter stuff and used it,” said Aniya.
“Cierra used the rest of the glitter and glittered up my house,” said Mrs. Harris.
It may be hard to picture that gift, based on that description. But it’s easy to imagine a toddler’s glee as she “glittered up” the house, right?
Some of these families needed a party. Doretha Alexander, who runs the Rankin location, said that around the holidays there’s “a lot of depression. A lot of people don’t even want to decorate. They’re just struggling and they’re poor and don’t want to spend the money on a toy. They need to pay the bills.”
A party helps. A free gift can be make-or-break.
The Rankin center is one of six countywide, serving around 400 families, and funded by Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. They help the families with everything from health care tips to field trips, cooking classes to free blenders, said Ms. Alexander. Thanks to more efficient referrals through the United Way’s 211 social services line, the centers have increasing enrollment — and record-shattering party attendance.