I haven't been on the boards for awhile. I had been busy running a Christmas Store for my church, where people who couldn't afford to buy presents for their kids could come and get brand new gifts for free.

Normally every year I organize the food and toy drive and we do 15 or so families. This year our local bank decided not to do the angel tree, so 3 of us from our church decided we had to do something for the kids who weren't getting anything/little for Christmas. We live in a small town, pop 1200, so it was easy to gather names/referrals. Our area is economically depressed and alot of people that do work just make minimum wage.

Our Methodist Church at the state level had a warehouse for rural areas to get items to give out to kids, so we made 2 trips to Oklahoma City to get items, filling our truck and an an SUV with items. Brought them back on 12/13, gathered other donations, set up a store and started scheduling people to come in at night and on weekends to shop for their kids. We had to ask for toys and money for toys, because we did not get toys from the warehouse, it was all donated items (new) but we got alot of brand new books, Goody hair stuff, body wash, Mary Kay stuff, scrap booking stuff, then we bought the toys or got donated.

The three of us used our Facebook pages to ask for donations as well as asking in church and the donations of items just came pouring in. We ended up providing gifts for 114 kids in our town/surrounding area. Every kid got a couple of gifts, a couple of books and stocking stuffers and if you were a girl you got more, just because we had more for girls (not exactly fair, but we went with what we had). It was very exhausting, because I was working my job in the day then doing this at night, but at the same time it was very rewarding.

There was one family that was going to "skip Christmas" because they didn't have any money for gifts, didn't have a tree or decorations, etc. I ran into this lady at the Food Bank (I am the Director of the Food Bank in our town) so I was able to get her some gifts for her son and a tree. Alot of families with hospital bills one guy had to have his toes amputated and had been out of work and couldn't afford gifts. People just out of work because of the economy. Single moms making minimum wage and dad paying no child support. So many stories, we didn't ask why they came, but most people told us why they were there. And most hoped they could be in a position to be the ones donating next year.

We are already planning next year. It will be bigger and better, considering this year we really didn't have time to plan we just kind of threw it together and went with it. I just had to share, because it was an awesome experience!

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visit my homepage http://penny.mycoupons.com/

God Bless you and your partners for making the holidays happy for these families

Penny, great job! You should be very proud of yourself, your partners, and the community in general for pulling off such a big event.

Penny this is truly what the Christmas story is all about. I commend you and like Wildwood said you should be very proud of yourself. It makes me aspire to do something more in my community at holiday time and all year around.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

What an uplifting Christmas story. You should be very proud of yourself.

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~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
Now I can strangle it

What an inspirational story! And what a fortunate community to have you!

Thanks, Penny.

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell

Next year will you please post here.....about 6 weeks in advance? This year was horrible for me, but in past years I (and many others from this board) have been able to help a little! Hopefully, we all will have a better year......

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"It's not about how much baggage you have, it's about whether or not you can carry your own baggage with grace and dignity."