Joyce Reed of Fiddlestix was worried. She’d put up a big red velvet bag in her toy store, where people could purchase and donate a toy for two local charities, The Pettengill House and Our Neighbor’s Table. There were a few boxes in there, but nothing substantial.
“I was worried. I admit that I prayed last night, and ask the one upstairs for some help, but I didn’t expect anything like this,” said Reed.
Thanks to your donations (and a little bit of a match), you purchased $607 dollars worth of toys for kids who would’ve had a really sparse holiday this year. You did it. It was your donations, your caring, and your efforts. All I did was hand over your money to Joyce, and she’ll hand the toys over to the kids.
By the way, Joyce is also a local independent business owner. We just probably made her month in an economy that’s got everyone on the ropes. So you can pat yourself on the back for that one, too. I should add that Joyce also gave you all a 20% discount, so we actually bought $728.40 worth of toys for that amount.
There’s still more to do. Thanks to your generosity, I still have several hundred dollars left to spend on toys. I realized that I didn’t really get anything for older kids, so I’m going to go look for things in that category, plus, my friend Carolyn Jordan just opened a very small independent bookstore, so I can pick up some books from her, because some kids (nerds like me) love books for the holidays.
I want to thank you all. I loathe the holidays, for a lot of personal reasons, but because of this, and because of a nice story my parents told me a few days back (about reliving some of our old family traditions up in Maine), I feel pretty cheerful. There’s something great about being a Santa-by-Proxy, spreading the love that YOU gave with your contributions.
I’m doing this same project for the next three or four days in between work chores. If you want to donate, you can still give. Every dollar will be spent on charitable causes supporting kids and families in need this holiday season.
Thanks again.
Related posts:
