Anna’s Kindness volunteers became honest to goodness Secret Santa’s Sunday afternoon.
Nine of our volunteer families spent Sunday choosing from a wide array of gifts for some of the area’s children in need, as part of the annual Pace Neighborhood Center toy distribution.
In past years, qualifying parents would arrive at Peace on toy distribution weekend and select toys, games, dolls, clothing and other gifts for the children in their family. This year, due to COVID-19 regulations, the parents provided a Christmas wish list to the staff at Peace, a list that included their children’s age and interests.
Our volunteers then took that list (and checked it twice :)) and walked around the vast Peace toy room, selecting gifts that best matched the suggestions on the parents’ list. The toy room was filled with sports equipment, educational games, toddler toys, clothing, dolls, board games, puzzles … you name it, it was like Santa’s warehouse at the North Pole.
The gifts were then checked, bagged, labeled, and placed in a holding area for the families who would arrive the following day to pick them up.
Thank you to our volunteers: Forsythe Middle School’s Wesley Lovelace and Emmie Pokryfke, Clague Middle School’s Aubrey Gargan and Manisha Datar, Tappan Middle School’s Tessa Rober and Olivia Tharp, Mill Creek Middle School’s Owen Sortor and their parents who spent their Sunday afternoon working to make Christmas morning a special day for dozens of children.
A special thank you to Fran and Hayley Marchand, and Anna’s mom and brother, Fran and Alex, for hosting the volunteers at this year’s Peace event. And we’d like to thank Bonnie and his Peace Neighborhood Center staff for allowing us to help in this wonderful Christmas tradition.
#randomactsofanna
