Fannin County, Texas -- In all, 293 children received Christmas gifts from the Fannin County Children’s Center, thanks to a generous community and many hard-working volunteers and staff.
For the second year in a row, the Children’s Center created a pop-up store to serve the children served by CASA and the Children’s Advocacy Center. Some CASA children were still served the traditional way. The pop-up store gave parents, caregivers or advocates an opportunity to select presents for their children. Each child got a book and either a coat, hoodie or pair of shoes. Each family got one family board game and plenty of wrapping paper. Caregivers were also able to select toys and other gifts using a point system.
“Over the years, our traditional way of doing Christmas had grown to be more than our staff could reasonably manage. We learned of this pop-up store idea from other Children’s Advocacy Centers,” said Sandy Barber of the Children’s Center. “This way of getting gifts to kids turned out to be much more empowering for our families and allowed for more volunteer involvement.”
“Over and over again, we heard parents and other caregivers express their gratitude for this help for Christmas,” said Barber. “There were even some happy tears and lots of hugs of appreciation too.”
“The generosity of our community was overwhelming once again. So many individuals, businesses, churches and other groups gave what they could and it all added up to make sure all of the children served by CASA and the Children’s Advocacy Center have something special for Christmas,” said Barber.
Eighteen local businesses set up teddy bear trees to help collect gifts for the children, including 9-1-1 Nutrition, Blessings & Butterflies, Bonham Chrysler, Brookshire’s Grocery, CapTex Bank (Bonham & Trenton), First United Bank (Bonham & Leonard), Fix and Feed, Gayle’s, Harper’s Creations Baker, Legend Bank, Rebel Roots Boutique, Red River Gypsies, Shockley State Farm, Stay Grounded Coffee Company, Tax-Assessor Collector’s Office (Tag Office), Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, WalMart and Warrior Tire.
“Many of these businesses have been doing this for many years. Others were new this year,” said Barber. “We are very grateful for their assistance and generous support of our Christmas Drive.”
Gifting The Cycle is a nonprofit that gives bicycles to children in the North Texas area. They gave 59 bicycles and helmets to the Children’s Center for Christmas presents.
For more information about the Children’s Center, call (903) 583-4339 or go to www.fanninccc.org.