From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday, local families lined up at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Augusta headquarters at 624 Chafee Ave. to complete their Christmas shopping.
The United Way CSRA hosted its fourth annual Empty Stocking Fund Gift Distribution, a charitable program, in which families selected through an application process choose gifts for their children online, at no cost. The gifts are then packaged, sorted and disseminated to the families in a drive-thru arrangement at the pickup locations—this year, at the Boys & Girls Club in Augusta, and Augusta Technical College’s Waynesboro campus.
“There’s a lot of dignity behind that, where the parents are picking the gifts they want for their kids,” said Brittany Burnett, CEO of United Way CSRA. “It’s not me or you picking what we think those kids should want.
United Way partnered with the Empty Stocking Fund (ESF) nonprofit, based in Atlanta, to establish Augusta’s iteration of the drive, operating as a satellite location of the charity. A donor’s $35 contribution is translated to $100 worth of gifts per child.
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By 3 p.m., Thursday, some 370 families had driven by to receive their gifts, which comes out to 1,000 individual kids getting their own stocking stuffers.
Volunteers from John Deere stood outside the Boys & Girls Club building, directing cars, scanning QR codes and giving out packaged presents.
“This is our second year doing this event, and we find it really rewarding to get to meet and interact with the community that we’re trying to help give back to,” said volunteer Alexa Martinez. “Especially during the holidays, and get to meet some of the kids. So that’s why we want to come back every year and see those faces and do what we can to just provide that support.”
The kinds of presents run the gamut, Burnett notes, including popular mainstays such as remote control toys to stuffed animals to video games and sports equipment.
“The things that any kid from zero to 17 would like,” she said. “These are kids that want to feel like every other kid, so they want the same gifts as every other kid.”
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Burnett also explains that many families throughout the CSRA are struggling, from those living in poverty to those who are referred to as “ALICE families”—asset limited, income constrained and employed.
“Those are families making more than the federal poverty level, but they’re making less than what they need to meet the basics of a household survival budget,” she said, noting such households were previously called the working poor.
These hardships have been exacerbated in many cases by Hurricane Helene, with many households forced to focus all their spending on necessities during the holiday season, even if they received extra funds, such as from FEMA or insurance.
“Many of these families who are here applying for these gifts don’t typically do so. Because of the impact of the hurricane, they’re spending their Christmas money on something else,” Burnett said. “It could be on a deductible, it could be on some other repairs, refilling their fridge, those sort of things. And so we’re seeing an increased need in families that you know are requesting support, because they may not have Christmas otherwise.”
The United Way CSRA is slated to continue its ESF distribution at Augusta Tech’s Waynesboro campus from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, and expects to have distributed Christmas gifts to more than 1,800 children this year.
For more information on how to contribute to United Way CSRA’s holiday efforts, visit its website at https://www.uwcsra.org/.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
