we had our first distribution on Saturday...
and we were well stocked and ready to go...
this was mostly done in the last week...
we had been turning the toy drive over to another couple...
so this year we were just shadowing them as they went along...
but they weren't doing anything but spending money that was in reserve from last year...
doing nothing to get funds raised for this year and the tables were far from being full enough to open on Saturday...
so, I had a pep talk with them, that they needed to start working on it...
it doesn't just happen...
guess they didn't like the pep talk, because within an hour, they quit...
we were so relieved!
the majority of what you see here came in in 3-4 days of putting the word out on social media...
and what happened in the following days was the most amazing support from our communnity!
the school is behind us...
the fire department is behind us...
the manager of our new Family Dollar is behind us...
the people who donate toys and money are behind us...
(because it wasn't coming in while the other people were running it)
and our elves are behind us every step of the way...
this is all who were there on Saturday...
us, our elves and our fire and ems people...
(we use their building every year)
we had our second distribution last night and almost all of the ones left came in...
meeting one more Friday...
we have quite a bit left over and just over a $1,000 in the bank...
(the bank account was down to $4.59 when we took it over)
its been the most amazing whirlwind time, but we met the needs of these families and so far, 51 children in our school district will have something under the tree come Christmas morning...
we are so blessed and completely overwhelmed...
its been a good year!