Misson accomplished: Generosity ensures kids' Christmas cheer

Photo by QUENTIN ROUX, Staff

Maria Cano checks out shoes she was buying for five children. She is assisted by Alexander Robau and his mom Michelle.

Photo by QUENTIN ROUX, Staff

Crowds of parents and some children wait patiently at the check-out line at KMart on Tamiami Trail after filling their carts with gifts.

On the surface, it was a case of generous Marco Islanders enabling the parents of 1,216 needy children to buy them Christmas presents.

So, it was mission accomplished for the 20th year in a row for the Joy of Giving charity, spearheaded by Nicki Davis and an ever-burgeoning armada of volunteers.

They catered for 430 families, alloting $61.17 per child for gifts from the grand total of $73,745 collected.

And, as Davis says every year, these kids will go back to school after the Christmas break and be able to tell their buddies: “Santa came to my house too.”

It was behind the scenes at Kmart on Saturday however, that some of the many poignant stories attached to these needy people emerged.

Davis’ right-hand helper, Misty Mixon, had been in the thick of things months previously, working with school counselors to choose the neediest children.

She got to know some of the personal situations first-hand, such as one child whose mother had recently abandoned her at Youth Haven.

Then there was a mom with cancer and virtually no income, and another who’d planned to do Christmas shopping for her kids this year at a dollar store.

At Kmart, Mixon said, were two grandmothers who wanted to buy their grandkids each a bike, but the allotment didn’t cover that.

Mixon made a plan with Davis, and the two kids will be ringing bells of the cycling kind come Christmas morning.

Also significant, Mixon said, was that most of the families who benefited from the Joy of Giving opted for clothing for their children ... shoes, jackets, shorts, trousers ... things that privileged kids simply take for granted.

“So,” Mixon said, “We made sure that these parents also put a couple of toys in their carts for their kids.”

Apart from the major supporter, The Island Country Club, as well as bike run organizer Ernie Borden, Islander Howard Jordan’s Upon a Star Foundation and scores of individual supporters and volunteers, Davis said Mixon’s contribution was invaluable.

“I do the money,” Davis said, “but was dealing with the schools and the children. She was a Godsend.”