D.R.Y.L. Donations
Of Toys, Food & Clothes
Make Their Way To Those In Need For The Holiday
Saturday morning Mary
& I headed out to meet up with NHYC Members Ed & Maureen Strange and
proceeded down to Frankford & Cambria in North Philadelphia to assist The
Pastor & Elders of The Trinity Presbyterian Church with their Christmas
Dinner with Santa. DRYL Recording
Secretary Denise Leo and her 2 children ( Alex & Max ) showed up to help
out as well and were a great help. Alex
acted as Santa’s Helper giving the kids coloring books, crayons, & candy
after they sat on Santa’s lap and Max helped serve food and then went back to
help wrap gifts with his mother. Our
group served food, wrapped gifts, helped with the giving out of toys &
clothing and NHYC member Ed Strange did a great job as Santa. Ed sat for well over an hour seeing each and
every child wishing them a Merry Christmas and listening to their requests for
gifts and posing for pictures. He did a
wonderful job and showed great patience – anyone need a Santa??
This year they did
things a little different – instead of the Santa giving out the donated toys, when
the children came up to meet him, they were all given Coloring Books and a bag
of candy, and the parents were directed back to Santa’s workshop where they
were allowed to pick a toy for their child and then have it wrapped by Santa’s
Helpers to take home to be placed under the Christmas Tree from Santa for
Christmas. The church did a great job of
cooking & feeding close to 100 people – they served ham, mashed potatoes
with gravy, 2 veggies, yams, apple cobbler, muffins and cake. Many came back for 2nds and 3rds
and the food was given out until everyone had a full belly with some even
taking platters to go.
As for the coats,
sweaters and other clothing items that were donated, they were placed in the
church in the pews and all the adults were given tickets and when their number
was called they were given a chance to go thru the church and pick an item or
two. Many who came in cold left the
church warm with a coat, not hungry, and with gifts for their kids for
Christmas from Santa. It was truly a very
touching day and for the little that we did, we were made to feel like we had
done so very much more.
I just want to thank
those that gave donations and my only wish is that you could have been there to
see what joy and smiles that those donations bring. I cannot even begin to give thanks to the
Strange’s and The Leo clan for their help and donations. I would like to quickly mention that Denise
ran out last minute to the Dollar Store to get more coloring books and crayons to
assure that each child received one after seeing Santa, and if
it were not for the very, very generous toy donations by the Strange’s, the
children probably would have only gotten those coloring books and crayons –
instead thru the kindness of The Strange’s toy donations these kids will have
presents to open up on Christmas morning as The DRYL had only a couple toy items
donated ( however we were flooded with clothing and [food which went to
Philabundance ]).
Lastly, I need to give
thanks to my wife Mary, who did a long shift at work on Friday night, came home
for a few hours only to shoot back to work for a short shift on Saturday morning,
and then headed down with me to the Church to help out - not once did I hear anything
from her on being tired or the desire to leave.
She spent the day w/ Maureen and the Leo’s helping with the toys,
wrapping of gifts and assisting the older adults with going thru the clothing to
find coats & sweaters that fit them.
As I see it, I got to spend the day with some pretty extraordinary
people, some from the church, some from the community, and those from our group. The people from our group, I am proud to call
my friends and lucky that one is my wife.
Take a look at the
pictures from the dinner and admire the church which is from 1859 with a few
original stained glass windows and a working pipe organ from that era. Sorry for the quality, Candyce wasn’t there
and I had to use my own camera. My
Apologies to Ed & Maureen as I was only able to salvage one picture of Maureen
( w/ Mary ) and none of Ed. ??? Was it operator error or equipment malfunction,
who knows ???
When you hear a little
one say “ This is the best Holiday Dinner EVER “ you cannot imagine the
warmth & happiness that it brings you , then when you go home and reflect, the
sadness rings in …
My mother once told me
a saying from a Gulistan Poem “ I was once saddened because I had no shoes, until
I came upon a man with no feet “
We all have our
problems, our woes and worries – but we are also all very blessed, count the
ways and make yourself feel good about life & this upcoming Holiday.
Mary & I wish you
all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year & please remember to give
out thanks to your members that made donations!
Take care …
Juice