Stockings for Santa

For the past 4 years, I have been involved with a project which we named "Stockings for Santa." Each year the Salvation Army tries to have 4,000 stockings filled for children in the middle TN area. That may sound like a lot, but the need is actually 8,000!

A few years ago my wonderful friend, Holly Fisher, invited me to be a part of this. It since has grown immensely and this year we had our church Ward, her Methodist Sunday School Class, and a local organization called "Ordinary Hero" all involved. We filled 700 stockings, a personal best for our group as well as the largest single donation for this cause. :)

The afternoon of the event we met at the church with all our pre-counted and sorted items to form stocking filling lines and get everything organized.
When volunteers started arriving we were given instructions.

Then we began filling!

Christie and Mike were two of the several "end of the line" people who collected the filled stockings and staples the Santa topper in place.

Here is Holly! I am so grateful that she invited me to be a part of all this and to see what it has grown to be. In the background on the wall is a picture of Mary Owen Herbert. She passed away at an early age of 17 months and her family (who is a part of Holly's Sunday School Class) wanted a way to remember her by. What an amazing way to do that!

Art tables for the kiddos

Jenna & Mark Bell

Amanda & Andy Rigby

2 of my favorite boys......Tyler & Matt Hissong

Cute little Katie LOVED filling the stockings. Lauren & Brooklyn were convinced that they were filling a stocking for themselves! :)

After all the work was done we had a huge potluck dinner with socializing and a live band. It was a great experience....a lot of work.....and I hope to continue in the years to come and help make some great serviceable memories for my kids, and all the families involved.