Toys for Tots Coordinator Makes Last-Minute Plea For Help

GRENADA, Miss. (WCBI) – As more families need help this holiday, local volunteers expanded a program that puts gifts under the tree.

While the program should be wrapping up, there’s still a long list of parents who need your help.

Beyond the doors at the Lewis Johnson Complex on Sunday, most said it feels like Christmas. It sounded like Christmas, and that element of surprise kids get on Christmas morning was there, too.

Mother of three, Chenita Bryant was one of many parents taking advantage of the Toys for Tots Program. She also won a prize at the door.
“I was blessed to pull a bike for free. I think he’s going to enjoy it. I think he’s going to enjoy it, thank god,” Bryant said.

This bike was on top of the other toys she received for her three kids from Toys for Tots.

“I was like,wow! I wasn’t expecting another blessing. Yes, double blessings,” Bryant said.

And it’s a blessing just to watch these parents be blessed. That’s why one faithful church attendee thought today, he’d probably get a pass for coming here, instead.

“I could’ve been in church today and listened to the Word, or I could come out here and be a part of the Word,” Grenada Councilman Lewis Johnson said.

He said he loved the feeling he got inside the building. But he knows there are some kids who will go without.

Coordinator Calbrina Woods said last year they didn’t have a waiting list. Now there are more than fifty families on a waiting list. After expanding the program from Montgomery County into Grenada County, and receiving a thousand toys and eight thousand dollars, the program should be ending about now. Woods is making one more plea for help.

“We’re going to try our best to fill every last one of those requests before christmas. If I have to get up on Christmas Day to make a kid smile, I’ll be there,” Woods said.

And Bryant can sleep peacefully because this is one less burden for a mom struggling to make ends meet.

And she said she wants to keep coming back, but not as a recipient.

“I pray that one day I will be able to give the way they had helped and gave to not just my family but others,” Bryant said.

If you’d like to help or need help, contact Coordinator Calbrina Woods on her cell at 662- 753-1659.