Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  As you celebrate this season that is all about what God gave to us, I wanted to send a thank you out to you for what you have given to Hope Chest.

This year, with your help, Hope Chest has been able to serve 58 families!  By giving of your time and resources, these families have been able to get a jump start on making their houses homes.  I cannot thank you enough for that!

The biggest project we attempted this year was a team effort with our friends at The Tapestry Project.  The Tapestry Family Toy Store was an amazing opportunity to serve the city in a different way.  We pooled our resources (you) and you pooled your resources and we were able to provide gifts for the families to buy for their children.

Here is what happened in pictures.

first we had several families come and do the initial set up.  The big kids placed the toys on the table…

while the younger kids made Christmas cards for the families that would come through.

Then the kids all helped price the items (with adult input).

Then within a day and a half, we ran out of toys.

We still had 4 more days of the store left of the store, and we had just a few toys left.  We decided to close for the weekend and send out a call for help.  Our plan was to reopen on Thursday, but we weren’t sure what we were going to have to put on the tables.  THEN…you all responded in a BIG way!  All of our friends told all of their friends and we had an explosion of toys!

These two women alone were able to call in their own troops and I was able to pick up somewhere around $2,000 worth of toys!  I felt like santa with my truck loaded up!  A huge thank you to Amy and Crystal and all your friends and family who gave to help us re-open the store!

On top of these toys, another 2-3 thousand dollars worth were brought in from other people and organizations.  Simply amazing what can be done when we all join together!

The tables got to the point of overflowing and we had to store a bunch of toys to restock the tables later!  Then the best part came.

Re-opening the store!  At the last unofficial count, over 100 families were able to shop at the store and provide Christmas gifts for their children this year.  Most of those children would have gone without toys this year.

The Christmas store was an amazing and humbling thing to experience.  It could not have happened without you.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Together we can make a difference, one family at a time!