RBR Partners With Helping Hands Xmas Gift Program

Posted by George Russell

Helping Hands conducted its annual Christmas Gift Program on Saturday, Dec 12th where parents of some 800 Rockwall area children were able to pick up three gifts and a stocking stuffer for each of their childen. RBR provided volunteer assistance to the 100+ volunteer army mustered to make this a most joyous occasion for all concerned.

Helping Hands has offered this 'Christmas Gift' outreach program for more than twenty! years... With each of the 800 children registered receiving three gifts and a stocking stuffer, one can imagine the enormity of this undertaking.

The 3,200+ gifts were donated from across and thoughout the Rockwall community, including some 25+ business's, the broader church community at large, and our local police forces who provided both financial support and numerous gifts, as well as manpower to manage the event. This wonderful event took place at the now-vacant Circuit City space on the I-30 access road for all those families who had pre-registered through Helping Hands beforehand. Helping Hands staff members, led by Sherry Hamm and Sue Welch, did a superb job of organizing everything over the past many weeks, evidenced best by how smoothly everything went yesterday.

Given the enormity of this undertaking Helping Hands put out a call for volunteer help and Rockwall Breakfast Rotary was both able and so very pleased to respond and participate in this most joyous day. Our primary assignment was to act as greeters at the front door as people entered the facility (proudly wearing our Rockwall Breakfast Rotary shirts of course!). We also had the opportunity to serve as personal shopping guides for individual families as they selected toys for their children throughout the morning.

All in all a wonderful heartfelt event for everyone there--whether giving or receiving. And quite a sight as well. The parking lot was generally completely full through the morning and police department volunteers had four police cars parked on the sidewalk in front of the store for a good while. Couple those two sights with all the associated foot traffic, its no wonder a number of 'ordinary' shoppers also came in the front door thinking Circiut City must be having one heck of a going-out-of-business sale. Not so, it was much much better than that with broad smiles on everyone's faces throughout the day.

.....and, for Rockwall Breakfast Rotary, another great opportunity to live our Rotary motto in our community: Service Above Self! in such a meaningful way.