By Barbara Hudson, Guest Columnist
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On behalf of Cherokee County Toys for Tots, I wish to thank everyone who gave of their time and/or their financial and toy gifts to make this another successful year.
We again kicked off our campaign with a motorcycle run organized by the WNC Wingmen Motorcycle Club in June. This was a second annual for them, and they well surpassed fundraising this year over last. They are looking forward to continuing this trend.
Wayne’s Feed Store held their raffle again this year and Toys for Tots received over $2,000 of the proceeds.
John Evans, prior longtime local coordinator and this author’s father, acted as schools coordinator in 2021. He did an outstanding job motivating each of his contacts, and some of our local schools went way above and beyond with fundraising. In particular were Ranger Elementary, Andrews Elementary, Peachtree Elementary and Hiwassee Dam High schools.
We also received a lot of volunteer support from the local high schools helping at our collection tables, courtesy of Walmart and Lowe’s, as well as our intersection hold-ups.
The Andrews High School volunteers did a terrific job at their hold-up downtown, and local Andrews businesses Snowbird Mountains Brewery and IOI exceeded expectations.
Once again, Chris Crayton and her students from the Tri-County Early College High School Beta Club were critical to our success. They were at most of our collection events and most of these volunteers spent both days at distribution, Saturday in the rain all day.
Our drive-up distribution went just as smoothly this year as it did last year, and will most likely be an ongoing method. A special thank you goes to TEAM Industries in Andrews for allowing us to receive countless shipments of toys to their warehouse.
Another special thank you to Publisher David Brown and the Cherokee Scout for getting the word out about our events and registration process. And, of course, our core group of volunteers who tirelessly devote so much of their time to manning collection tables, sorting and bagging toys in our often very cold warehouse to two days of distribution and everything in between, there are no words to thank you for all you do.
It is the incredible generosity of our small mountain community, which makes it possible to provide toys and, more importantly, hope, to so many children here in Cherokee County.
In 2021, Cherokee County Toys for Tots provided toys to 1,198 children. We most likely will never know what impact we have made on these children whether we donated $5,000 like Acorn Woodworks or our loose change at one of our intersection hold-ups. It all matters. The children matter most.
The writer is local coordinator of Cherokee County Toys for Tots.