Jayden Thomas, Bryant Thomas, and mother Brequina Henry pose with Santa and the boys’ basketball goal they received from Helping Hands Change Makers.
Nonprofit gives
away toys to kids
Former Garland commissioner Haywood Johnson and Helping Hands volunteers Phylis McLemore and Shelia Smith discuss the day’s success at a table where school supplies and clothes were available.
Garland Helping Hands volunteers Connie Lee and Jackie Johnson wait to serve food to those attending the weekend event.
Bella Boykins helps find gifts for children at the Helping Hands Change Makers Garland toy giveaway Saturday.
GARLAND — Locally-based volunteer group Helping Hands Change Makers showed just what the Christmas spirit is all about this past weekend, bringing smiles to the youngsters, and the adults, who attended.
Families with children of all ages joined the group to celebrate the joy of Christmas at the CND foundation building in Garland Saturday. Helping Hands hosted its annual Christmas toy giveaway for children and families in Garland and surrounding areas.
Several members of the community, as well as those with schools and local businesses, worked together to organize the event, which allowed the group to give away over 1,000 toys to local children. In addition to gifting toys, the group also gave away new clothes and school supplies, and offered several activities for children to choose from, such as coloring and face painting, as well as the chance to meet with Santa.
“To be able to bring the community to together and seeing the smiles and joy is such a reward,” said Shelia Smith, president of the local organization.
Smith told those in attendance, “This was not just Garland-wide, this was a county-wide operation, and our group is so thankful of every single person or business who helped to put this together; we could not make a single bit of this possible without you all. We owe you all so much more than we could say.”
Town Commissioner Lee Carberry was also in attendance, and filled in for Santa during the event.
“I just enjoy seeing children smile and seeing the look of joy on the kids as well as the parents,” the commissioner attested. “This is such a happy day for many; I am lucky to be a part of it.”
Carberry was one of many volunteers who helped collect toys from several drop-off locations and set up for the day’s events.
The group began collecting toys in November at several locations, one of which was Southern Bank of Garland, managed by Nakachia Murphy.
“I had to pray several times when the drive first started at our location. Donations were looking mighty thin,” Murphy explained. “And then — out of nowhere — they began to roll in, and the community really pulled together, and that’s what I love about this community — we really stick together.
“I had people that would come see what we had, and, literally, go spend hundreds of dollars on toys. And then the ability to get all the bikes and scooters and then having customers volunteer to go get them was just heart warming.”
Murphy acknowledged that one of the reasons she supports the drive is to encourage the youth in the area. “I know what it’s like to wake up and not to get what you wanted or to not have that bike. To see these children the week after Christmas riding bikes and scooters that me and my coworker helped to get, well that really hits home that we are making an impact in some little child’s life and keeping them out of trouble.”
The event was well received by many Garland residents.
“It’s great to get this help this time of year, knowing that with things as expensive as they are, this is an added bonus for me, and my kids,” asserted Shakeyia Eddington, a mother whose children benefited from the event.
Connie Lee, a member of the group who was helping to serve food, added, “We are able to truly show how blessed we are … being able to give back and having the means to give back to the place we all call home.”