We are extremely pleased to announce that our toy drive was more successful than we could have imagined. Since CCV could not build Winter Wonderland this year, we felt the need to help in any way that we could, so we dedicated our time and effort into a massive toy drive.
We provided many hundreds of toys to The Sheriff’s Police Athletic League of Lealman. Neil Brickfield from PAL reported that we were able to provide more age-appropriate gifts than ever, and that we made his life easier by labeling many of the gifts. Neil was also extremely impressed with the quality of the gifts received. There were also many, many gifts remaining so the PAL kids can go thru to choose Christmas gifts for their younger siblings.
Neil called this morning to tell me that we donated SO many gifts that he had tons of toys left over after he sorted gifts for the Pal kids. So he put the word out this morning that he had toys available for other non-profits and his phone hasn’t stopped ringing yet. He was shocked at the large amount of need that still existed so close to Christmas. He wanted CCV to know that because we went so far above and beyond our normal toy donation, that many more children will have a happier Christmas.
Today we donated specific gifts to Christopher King, Grandson of BB King, and Founder of The Gentlemen’s Course, as well as being a Humanitarian for stopping child trafficking. WE found out on Friday that Christopher needed gifts for a runaway shelter for teens in Bartow, Fl, so CCV jumped into action to help him!
CCV bought tons of necessary items like liquid soap, toothbrushes, etc, but also bought fun things like nail polishes and make-up for the girls, basketballs, footballs and soccer balls for the boys, as well as school supplies, socks and warm snuggly blankets for all the kids. Each teen will receive a huge bag of gifts that CCV hopes will help them have a wonderful Christmas.
Pam Ryan Anderson, Executive Director of CCV also provided her famous Gingerbread cookies for the kids to enjoy on Christmas Day.
CCV owes gratitude to all the companies and individuals that donated money to the toy drive or had Angel trees and boxes at their offices to obtain toy donations for the drive. CCV literally could not have done this without the help of our very generous community!
CCV wishes everyone a Very Merry Christmas and is extremely happy to have been able to help hundreds of children this Christmas.
This event includes a silent auction, great food and a fabulous fashion show with VIP models. The exquisite fashions featured are from local area boutiques. The huge silent auction had something for everyone with well over 300 items, and much more.
Entrance to Winter Wonderland is free but we ask visitors to bring a non-perishable food item and/or an unwrapped toy. The toys and canned goods are donated to local area charities, such as the Homeless Emergency Project sponsored by Everybody’s Tabernacle.
CCV will be treating PAL kids and the kids at a couple of homeless shelters with Easter goodies.
This is a multi-course dinner with wine pairings, prepared by the Tampa Bay’s top Chefs, and features curated live entertainment pairings for each course.
CCV will be helping PAL with their back to school event.