Barbie Daugharthy’s plea is short and sweet.
“Help,” she said. “We need it.”
Daugharthy and fellow Iolans Cheryl Sparks and Teresa Gribble are spearheading the annual Adopt-A-Child effort to get Christmas gifts to needy children in the area.
And with the Dec. 5 deadline for gifts to be turned in less than two weeks away, more than 110 children still need to be adopted.
The program is simple.
“Adopting” a child in this case means simply purchasing a few gifts, such as clothing, a “need,” such as a jacket or gloves and a wished-for item or two, then taking the unwrapped items into Iola’s First Baptist Church. Donors figure to spend an average of $40 per child, Sparks said.
“I can remember being panicked last year,” Daugharthy said, when a rush of givers at the last minute helped supply the more than 250 children with gifts for Christmas. “But this year is something else. We have probably twice as many kids who still need to be adopted.”
Ideally, organizers would like to have all of the children adopted by Thanksgiving so that donors can have wish lists in hand for special “Black Friday” sales when the Christmas shopping season hits high gear.
“We still have kids of all ages, boys and girls,” Sparks said. “We seem to have an abundance of the mid-range children, from 7 to 10 years old, still to be adopted.”
Cash donations also are welcome. Money can be taken to Emprise Bank in Iola.
In years past, the money has helped supply gifts for children who otherwise would not have been adopted, Sparks said.
“But we have so many still to be adopted, that we couldn’t cover the rest,” she said. “We’d really hate to see anybody go without this year.”
To inquire about donating, contact Gribble at 365-9103, Sparks at 365-1789 or Daugharthy at 365-5061.
Time running out to help children in need
