A Sanger-nalia Miracle

Today, I heard of three horrible things that happened:

1. One of my favorite places to shop in town, Twee Boutique, was robbed at gunpoint.
2. There was a terrible fire at Future Ford of Clovis. My blog before this showed a picture.
3. Some terrible people stole 75 percent of the toys in Sanger that were set aside for 4,000 children through Toys for Tots. The toys were stolen today sometime around 5 p.m. and the children are going to be in Sanger tomorrow morning to pick out their toy.

All very sad things, but how could someone steal from 4,000 underprivileged children?

Sam came home from work today and told me about what happened in Sanger and said that they were in need of toys and volunteers. After dinner, Sam and I went to Walmart to pick up some toys. We don't have too much money we can spend, but we were still able to get some games, slinkys and Hot Wheels.

After I trip to Walmart, we made our way to Sanger (it's about 20 minutes away). I was blown away by how many people were there to give their time and resources to help make these kids Christmas a good one. There were piles and piles of every kind of toy you could think of. I came across toys I didn't even know existed.

First, the toys were just brought in from trucks and cars and put into a pile. This is the pile that was there when we got to the Community Center. And these toys were not cheap. There were some very nice, expensive toys.

Toys were then organized into age groups and genders. For example: Boys 3-8, Girls 8 +, Infants, etc. 

We started filling boxes with toys in some sort of organized fashion, like baby dolls together, or Nerf guns together. Something along those lines.

There were boxes and boxes of games. 

After just 30 minutes or so, everything was starting to look organized with everyone's help. These people were working so hard.

We tried keeping all the balls together. Basketballs, footballs, baseballs, balls with Disney princesses on them ... every kind you could ever think of.

Bikes were being put into a separate room. I overheard some people talking and they said this wasn't even all of them. There were still some at some houses and a church that needed to be brought to the Community Center. My camera couldn't even fit all the bikes into the picture. That's a good thing though! And guys were still in the other room putting boxed bikes together.

I think this has to be my favorite part: Someone donated 4,000 YoYos! All those boxes were filled with multi-colored YoYos.

And here's Sam workin' hard...

This was right before we left when things slowed down a lot and people had left. People were still bringing donations though.

After hearing of such a horrible thing happen for no reason, it was such a blessing to hear that the people of Sanger and its surrounding communities were so willing to give their time and money. More toys were donated in less than six hours than there was in the days leading up to tomorrow's Toys for Tots Lunch. That just goes to show how generous people can be in a moments notice. I know that more donations were made after Sam and I left too. The mayor of Sanger, Joshua Mitchell, was there until midnight and he'll be back there at 5 a.m. to get the snow that's being driven there as well as the ice rink.


Toys and money can still be donated (5 a.m. to 9 a.m.). I know that Walgreens in Sanger was giving a two for one toy deal, and Target was giving discounts. There was also a Big Lots giving discounts. These discounts might still be available tomorrow morning, just ask!

Walmart's manager for this region was there tonight too. He was taking the cash donations some people gave, and using his 30 percent discount to make their money go further when getting gifts for these kids. He also donated 75 bicycles to the cause.

There were so many toys, hopefully the kids are able to have more than just one. And the Tea Party was able to get $3,700 from different donations together.

I can barely put into words how amazing it was to take part in something so vital to someone's childhood. Whenever I look back on Christmas 2011, I won't think about the gifts I got from friends and family, I'll think about how even though something horrible happened, something so wonderful came out of it. God shines in the unlikeliest places. Different people from different backgrounds, from different places, coming together for one reason: to make a difference in a child's life. I can't think of any way I would have rather spent my Friday night.

I still can't believe all these toys were donated in less than six hours!

It was a Saturnalia Miracle! Actually, a Christmas Miracle.