Bellview - There’s only one Christmas gift John Evans can remember receiving when he was growing up.
“I got my cousin’s Schwinn bicycle one year,” he said. “When I came down the stairs, I knew I got my cousin’s Schwinn bicycle … I coveted his Schwinn bicycle for years … Here I am, 76 years old, and I get teary-eyed thinking about it.”
It was a red and white bike that his father repainted and put on new tires for him. He never went without as a child, and probably got other popular gifts for the era, but seeing that bike was the most profound experience in his childhood.
The feeling he felt that morning is a feeling he wanted all children to feel on Christmas morning. As coordinator for Cherokee County’s Toys for Tots program for more than a decade, he got to help parents give children that experience, almost like Santa Claus.
Following his hero
Evans grew up in Philadelphia, idolizing his Uncle Joe.
“As a child, he was my hero,” Evans said. “God blessed me with wonderful parents, but Uncle Joe was a really good guy.”
Joe Evans was one of the Marines who landed on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. He watched as the U.S. flag was raised on Mount Suribachi and was wounded by mortar rounds. He had shrapnel in both his legs for the rest of his life.
When he came home from the war, he got married, had two children and opened a gasoline service station in Village Green, Penn. The town was smaller than Murphy, and Joe served the community as constable since he was there seven days a week, 10 hours a day.
“Uncle Joe was a Marine – who else would you make constable?” Evans said.
He remembered liking visiting Uncle Joe, and remembered him having to go somewhere because someone was causing a ruckus. At holiday meals, the family would talk about Joe’s exploits.
“I admired him, I wanted to be him,” Evans said. “He was an American hero.”
While still a student at John Bartram High School, Evans enlisted in the Marine Corps in November 1960. He graduated high school in January 1961.
Joining history
In the Marines, history is a major function of boot camp. Evans learned the lessons begin as soon as you get there, although he didn’t realize it in the moment.
“When the drill instructor comes onto that bus at 2 in the morning. You’re in a daze, and he’s angry and you don’t know why, and he wants you off his bus,” Evans said. “And you stand in these yellow footprints. At that point, you’re not thinking. You’re numb. You don’t sleep for the next few days. But it’s not long before they start teaching you more about who stood in (the footprints) before you did.”
He said the spirit of the corps is instilled in every Marine that he is indestructible, and that no man is left behind.
“You’re a part of something so much bigger than the individual,” Evans said.
He said the Marine Corps does a good job of transforming people into men and women.
Evans was honorably discharged in February 1969. He went into medical sales, working in both Philadelphia and southeast Florida. He remembered facing challenges those first years back in civilian life.
“All I had to do was tell myself, ‘I can overcome this, I’m a Marine,’ ” he said.
Evans eventually got a vacation home in Cherokee County. During one vacation in 1988, he decided he didn’t want to go back to Florida, and his family agreed to the move.
He became an overhead trucker for 10 years, then owned Evans Road & Land Improvement Co. for another 10 years. He also worked with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office for a few years.
Giving away toys
“I love kids,” Evans said, and his actions speak louder than words.
He was involved with Cherokee County Toys for Tots from the beginning, almost 20 years ago. When Ken Thagart needed to step away from the position of coordinator, he asked Evans to fill his shoes.
“I was here to do it, and I was blessed to have Susie,” Evans said, just beginning his praise of his wife for her work over the years.
Evans became coordinator of Toys for Tots in 2006, with his wife as his assistant. With their team of volunteers, they served about 1,000 children each year. He said he’s sad, but grateful for that number.
“I wish there wasn’t one,” Evans said. “That says to me that there’s 1,000 kids who really would have gone without Christmas at Christmas.”
“Can you imagine being a kid going to school after Christmas vacation, and not being able to say, ‘Guess what I got?’ ” Evans said. “That’s what matters to me … I wanted those less-fortunate children to go to school with big eyes.”
In 2016, Evans was honored as Coordinator of the Year for the region by the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. He was surprised the foundation was aware of “little, tiny, Murphy, North Carolina,” then claimed he was selected because of Susie’s involvement.
Changing attitudes
Evans thinks high school kids are the most intriguing, but he is concerned about the history they do not know. He would often show the kids the back of the Toys for Tots trailer, which has the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the U.S. flag being raised on Iwo Jima wrapped on it. He’d then ask the students what they knew about the image.
“I don’t know how many times I did that,” Evans said. “This is disturbing. I had one student tell me it was the flag raising on Iwo Jima. The typical answer was, ‘Soldiers and a flag.’ ”
He explained before that photo was published on the front page of every newspaper and cover of every magazine, the mood in the United States was dark. Americans were sick of the war and wanted out. That one photo changed America’s attitude.
“In a month, they raised $26 billion in bonds from that photograph,” Evans said.
That attitude is something he said is taught the first day of joining the Marine Corps. That’s why he always asks high school students about the photo.
“It really isn’t a Marines thing, it’s an American thing, a national pride thing,” Evans said.
In the family
Evans is proud his son David joined the Marines just before graduating from Murphy High School in 1998. David was discharged in 2002 but now serves in the U.S. Coast Guard, like his grandparents – Lester and Margaret Sheffield – did during World War II.
Earlier this month, Evans returned home from Alaska after visiting David and celebrating his promotion to lieutenant commander. He also enjoyed spending time with two of his four grandchildren there.
As the father of someone serving our country, Evans feels there’s something missed in the discussions about veterans – the parents of active duty members.
“God bless FaceTime,” Evans said. “But you don’t get touch time. It’s a big difference.”
He added that his family is thankful David and his family are stationed in Alaska, and not somewhere more dangerous.
“But it’s not easy,” Evans said.
What really matters
Although he retired as coordinator of Cherokee County Toys for Tots two years ago, Evans continues to receive phone calls about the program. He cordially and respectfully answers callers’ questions.
“The only thing that matters is the children,” he told one caller concerned she missed the deadline.
He has told Don Slifer, who replaced Evans as coordinator, how proud is he of him. Evans volunteers for the organization during distribution of toys, while his daughter, Barbara Hudson, assists Slifer, and Susie still handles communications for the organization.