Toy drives held across county to help children

Dec. 19—This past weekend set up a future for a lot of children in Sampson County to have smiling faces come Christmas. That is due in part to three separate toy drive events that took place around the county.

Over in Garland on Saturday, a fair share of volunteers from within the community gathered to lead their ninth Annual Community Christmas Toy Drive. Their goal, as it always is, is to ensure that every child in their area will experience the joy, love and acceptance of having new toys for the holiday.

"Every child deserves to have a new toy to cherish and enjoy," a statement from the volunteer coordinators said. "The volunteers have worked tirelessly to promote this project and are grateful for every donation. It is a wonderful gesture that makes a significant difference!"

This year's toy drive also brought something special, a ride on with the Plaincrazy Motorcycle Club — a first for the annual event. The Plaincrazy group joined the effort by sponsoring a toy drive 'ride', coordinated by Jamie and Shauna Harper. Participants registered by either donating a toy or giving a monetary donation for the purchase of a toy.

Afterward, the town volunteers provided a hot dog lunch at the Garland Senior Center for the participants following the ride. Plaincrazy was also able to arrange for Santa to come in for a visit to take pictures with the children who came.

"I want to thank everyone that came out today to participate and riding this ride," Mr. Plaincrazy himself, Jamie Harper, said. "We collected right at $400 to be able to spend more on toys for the kids, plus we've got trailer full of toys for them. This is what we do guys and I appreciate everything and everybody."

"As one of the volunteers here in Garland and representing this town of Garland, I would just like to thank you all as well," volunteer coordinator Sheila Smith said. "We look forward to all of you joining us again next year, so let's get ready to rev it up."

There were many citizens, churches, organizations and businesses in Garland and surrounding areas that partnered with the volunteers to collect new toys. The Town of Garland, Southern Bank (Garland branch), Sampson County Union District Schools, Pac Man Barbershop, Solomon's Foundation, Granny's Thrift Shop, and the Garland Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store and First Miracle Wine and Vine were just a few of the key partners who have toy collection boxes available.

"The Community Toy Drive is not just about collecting toys," the Garland volunteer coordinators stated. "It is a means to brighten the lives of innocent children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas. Many families are struggling just to provide for their basic needs and are not able to make the sacrifice to purchase toys. Toy drives can be an incredible gift in helping to provide a sense of normalcy for these children. Also, choosing to give to them can help the donors to feel renewed and refreshed this holiday season. It is a win — win for all!"

Volunteer coordinators for the 2023 Garland Area Community Christmas Toy Drive are Eleisa Walker, Veronica Thomas and Smith.

"Every year, it's always rewarding, exciting and the closer we get to Christmas, the feeling I get, it's like, 'wow', to be completely honest," Smith said. "Then again, it's just so rewarding to be able to give back. Not only just in our community, we call it a community toy drive for a reason, because we reach outside of our own community, that's what it's all about. You hit some roadblocks along the way, but through it all I wouldn't have it any other way."

Toys for Tots was also out in full force Saturday morning making and handing out mountains of bags full of toys for the community. They hosted their drive-thru in Clinton at the old College Street School (current Head Start across from Walgreens). The event kicked off that day early at 8 a.m. and went until the afternoon at 1 p.m. and the cars kept coming.

Carmen Jones, Toys for Tots Coordinator for Bladen, Duplin and Sampson counties, was there that day working side-by-side with the plethora of volunteers. As she heads this project each year she shared her thoughts on being able to support the community once more by hosting the event, its seventh.

"So this is our seventh year doing it in Sampson County," she said. "I also have my assistant Veronica here for interpretation because we try to service everybody and to be very inclusive. As always, we try to be very impactful, and do something different than we did the year before, always. We try to reach out to the vast majority of the community."

"We got donations from businesses, we got donations from volunteers, we got free breakfast and free lunch, we just love to help," Jones added. "That's my mission, that's my passion, is to help. As people know, we've been doing it for years now and Sampson County is dear to me because it's my first county that I was assigned to. I didn't know anybody then, so I'm very passionate about Sampson County and that's all I've got to say."

Jones' assistant Veronica Sanchez is also part of a new program at Sampson County Head Start which partnered and volunteered with Toys for Tots. She touched on what the program was about and why they joined with Toys for Tots.

"We're part of a new pilot program for Sampson County Head Start with Telamon," she said. "What we do here is help our Sampson County Head Start parents get the classes they need like ESL, GED classes, computer classes, and we do different kinds of workshops for them, like financial literacy. We joined with Miss Carmen to do Toys for Tots and we did our families, all our Sampson County families and other families as well that are not enrolled in Head Start. It's also serves to give us potential recruitment to get some more parents into Head Start."

As for how Sanchez personally felt about being able to volunteer and support Toys for Tots, she expressed this sentiment.

"I love it, I enjoy working with the community and the children and seeing their faces," she said. "It's nice to see the families that are able to get these services in the community. I know they lack a lot of resources, especially in the Hispanic community. So I'm glad I'm able to help them."

As one of the many volunteers present that day, Staff Sgt. Daniel Pacheco shared these thoughts as well. "As far as this, I enjoy serving the community and I enjoy helping out the kids and volunteering for the Toys for Tots. It's really impactful and it feels good to help people."

The final of the drives happened prior to both of these and took place this past Friday night. That event was the annually sponsored toy drive hosted by Ed Gillim and the Gillim Foundation. An ongoing mission, he started to give back and to honor the legacy of his late parents.

The event was hosted a Southern Ambiance in Clinton but extends far outside Sampson County. Last year alone, gifts were supplied to Clinton, Garland, Leland, Wilmington and places in New Hanover County, this year they even reached Greenville. The turnout that night was a huge success.

"We had a very successful toy drive again this year and Santa even made a appearance," Gillim said. "We also this year helped communities in the Greenville area as well as all over Sampson County. Mr and Mrs. Horace Bass of Southern Ambiance also collaborated with us this and last year. We blessed approximately 60 children and we'll continue to give until Christmas day as always."

Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.