Miracle on 2nd Street
On or about December 12th, the Cass Lake/Bena Family Center, located in Cass Lake started making phone calls. Calls went out to approximately 128 families that their 400 children were not getting toys this year. The Family Center gives out toys every year, but this year for some unknown reason, their application for toys from the Toys for Tots Program in the Twin Cities wasn’t received, or wasn’t processed.
The new director of the Family Center, Tom Blackbird was filled with regret and very apologetic to every family he talked to. He called my friend Sharon’s house and I took the call. “I’m sorry,” he said, “But, the Family Center isn’t having a toy give-away this year.” When I asked why, he told me and I said I’d pass the message on to Sharon.
Every year, for the past few years, I have helped pass out the toys at the Family Center. It has given me a sense of joy to see the mothers and fathers that come through, picking out the toys for their children and seeing the looks on their faces as they fulfill their children’s dreams of a visit from Santa Claus. The children were not the only ones that were going to be disappointed.
When I gave Sharon the message, she gave Tom a call to get more information. She told him, “Well, I don’t know what can be done, but give me a day, maybe something will happen.”
She got on the computer, and every name that was in her address book, she sent the same e-mail, letting them know about the crises at the Family Center. By the following Monday, she began to get responses. People started donating money and toys to the Family Center. The RTC of Leech Lake even made a donation. Then, Sharon’s sister, Joanne called and she had donors lined up, but they probably wouldn’t be able to issue checks until after Christmas, so the foundation where Ms. Stately works, offered to wire the funds in advance so that the Family Center would have that cash available for the purchase of toys.
As of this moment, the Family Center has collected enough money and toys for the children of this community through the generosity of strangers, that they’re going to have the best Christmas ever. My heart is filled with emotions I haven’t felt for quite awhile, the joyfulness and gratitude, the humility, the renewed hope. It’s like when the Grinch’s heart started growing again, and he didn’t know quite how to react. When tears came to his eyes and he cried to his dog, “I’m feeling, again!” Well, that’s how I am. Just so-o-o-o happy.
Sharon has proven once again what can happen when a pebble is thrown into a pool of water, the ripple effect of our actions can touch people at all levels. I am thankful that Sharon tossed that pebble. The response has given me a renewed faith in the goodness that lies within each of us. Have a very Merry Christmas and remember this story as your children open their presents, how four hundred children on the Leech Lake Reservation almost didn’t have Christmas.