Thank YOU! Christmas Buddy Adoption Success
The 2nd Christmas Buddy Adoption was a success! I cannot thank you enough for helping my Christmas Buddy family get a fresh start! I wrote a post that will show the from the beginning how the community pitched in to give the family an amazing Christmas. Click on the picture below for my video introducing the Christmas Buddy Adoption.
Introducing the 2nd Christmas Buddy Adoption
Click picture for video
This summer, I had a very successful Kool-Aid for Houston stand. I raised almost $250 in just a few hours. I donated half the money to the JJ Watt Hurricane Relief Fund and the other half to Crossroads Christian Church's Hurricane Relief Fund. It's my church and we were getting ready to send a team to Houston to help. With all the natural disasters this year, fires and hurricanes, I knew I wanted my Christmas Buddy to be a family who was affected by Hurricane Harvey. What I didn't know was how on earth I would find a family. I remember telling my mom, "It can't be a family in Houston, how we would get the stuff to them?" She said we should just drive to the Convention Center in Dallas were those who evacuated were staying. I was like, how we will find a family? She said, "Just let God speak to us."
My dad heard all this and told us there was someone on Nextdoor trying to find furniture for a family who was starting over here.
Turns out, after digging to find the post, the lady who was helping them was a neighbor, Ms. King, a Mental Health Case Worker with the Dallas Police Department's Crisis Intervention Unit. She connected my mom with the family. We talked to the mom and learned about their story. My mom gave me all the information and asked if this was the family I wanted to adopt and I said yes! My mom asked me what would I want for this family in my wildest dreams and I said a car. She tried to talk me out of posting that, she suggested a family five pack to Gaylord on Ice. I wasn't being rude, but when we brainstorm, it's like I'm KidChris and she's my MomCEO. I said, "Uhhhh that won't work, they need a car to get there."
Drop Off Night
Click the picture for video
My mom and I began to put the wheels in motion. The whole thing is done only on social media through my blog, Facebook, and Twitter. We created a Sign Up Genius with everything they needed. People were great, they started dropping stuff off at our house! I really wanted a drop off night, a place where people could come to to bring their donations. A community member stepped up and secured the location for our first drop off night!
What a great night! FOX 4 News heard about the Christmas Buddy adoption and interviewed the family and me! We had only talked to the family on the phone. Seeing them on the news as they told their story made me want to work even harder to give them the best Christmas ever.
I also have to stop here and thank my brother, Quinton. He never said a word to anyone all night long about not feeling well. When we got home after the drop off night, my mom had to take care of him. She asked him why he didn't say anything while we were there. His response: "This was a big night for Donovan and then family, it wasn't about me, I was going to be ok."
Fox 4 - Drop Off Night Coverage Click the picture for video
We came home and my mom assembled Team Christmas Buddy (that's her group of friends who helped nonstop and worked hard all along the way) sorted out the gifts to see what was still needed. Turns out, even though it looked like quite a bit - this was a family of 5 we were helping and they lost EVERYTHING so we still had a ways to go. WE NEEDED ANOTHER DROP OFF NIGHT!
Enter Slim Chickens. Not only did they offer a drop off night, they also gave 20% of all tickets directly to the family during a 4 1/2 hour window! That was amazing! A lot of people from our church, Crossroads Christian Church, and the community came out to bring gifts, some came to have dinner, some came to give gifts, and have dinner - a win-win!
Slim Chickens Drop Off Night
Wrapping Party!
But WAIT! I need to backtrack!
Right after the family's story was on FOX 4, my mom got a call from a man whose wife saw the story. You won't believe what he said! I didn't! Remember what I said my wildest dream was for this family when my mom asked me that question? My wildest dream was for them to get a car out of all this! (Did I mention my brother is awesome?)
My Wildest Dream!
"My wife and I want to bless this family with car!" I'm never at a loss for words, but this! I was speechless! Do you realize what this would mean for this family?
After the story aired, we learned that there was a nearby church that they walked to. To get groceries, they'd walk to the store, numerous times since they had to make trips just based on what they could carry in their hands. They won't have to do that anymore!
Once CMG Insurance heard about the family and the car they'd been blessed with, they quickly offered to cover six months of car insurance at no charge! So not only did someone bless this family with a car - a very nice car - they are protected as they drive around and begin to get back on their feet.
THE BIG NIGHT IS FINALLY HERE!!!
The family had fun getting ready for the big day! We worked out free haircuts for the dad and sons and the works at a beauty school and a makeover at the mall for the mom so they could look and feel great coming to their Big Reveal and surprise dinner.
Getting Ready for the Big Reveal!
Keller Williams - The Brenneman Team was kind enough to allow us to use their office space for the Big Reveal. It was so much fun setting up the surprise for this amazing family! Everyone was working hard and moving fast. The Keller Williams - Brenneman Team welcome us and the family and really allowed us to do whatever we needed to set up for the Big Reveal.
Mrs. Brenneman captured some special moments on Facebook Live.
Click the picture for Facebook Live post!
So many things were happening at the same time. I felt like we were on a covert ops mission! The friends who were their drivers for the evening were texting their ETA, we were texting them, we were texting my dad, he was texting us to tell us when to bring them outside, mom and I were making our plans for how to get the family from point A to point B with all the things happening at the Big Reveal, Mr. Fernandez scurried outside to capture their faces.
A great family from church offered to go pick them up from their home. They had no idea what to expect for the evening. El Primos sponsored a wonderful meal for the family, so they were driven straight to El Primos.
A Night Out on the Town, Thanks, El Primos!
Back to Operation Christmas Buddy! CW 33 wanted to be a part of the Big Reveal. They said they love kids doing good things and like to share that with the community. While everyone was setting up, Mr. Fernandez was interviewing me.
CW33 Big Reveal Coverage
Click for Story
I got to talk a lot about how this all began, but one really important thing came out of that interview. It didn't show on the news, but Mr. Fernandez asked me how do I feel about doing all this being just 12 with my friends probably hanging out and playing video games and skateboarding while I'm doing this. I told him it feels good to help somebody and not expect anything in return, but I didn't stop there.
"My mom's been in my corner the entire time. I'm still a kid, too, and I really like to do those things, too, and sometimes I'd rather be doing those things when my mom tells me it's time to get to work. "I want to thank her for pushing me to do the right thing. If it weren't for her I probably wouldn't get done half as much as I've gotten done."
I admitted that it's hard for me to do things in front of other people and give ideas, so I'm just hoping this will help other people realize that even though you may be ashamed (shy) about your idea to help someone out, don't listen to the world because you know in your heart that you're helping someone out."
Mr. Fernandez asked what's next after this is over. "It's not gonna stop here I can tell you that. My Christmas Buddy might be over people can still help this family. I want to thank everybody, my mom, family, and friends, and I want to thank God for putting all of this together."
A Little More CW33 Interview that Didn't Air - click below
There were so many tears. When the family got there, my mom and I went down and met them. My mom and their mom hugged and cried. All my mom kept saying was, "God is so good!"
They were shocked by all the presents. I don't know what they were expecting, but I could tell they were shocked!
Christmas Presents!
One of my favorite authors sent some of his favorite books for kids. The boys went crazy over the books! One of them said, "I'm going read this one tonight!" This was pretty cool: I just assumed the author would be sending his own books, as in books he wrote. But he didn't! That was pretty humble and surprising.
Some of the books he sent I had never read before, now I've added them to my own list, too. (Check out the books I put in the mom's hands on this picture, and one of the sons picking his first one to read!)
Finally, it was time for the biggest surprise of all! We received word that it was time to take them outside. When we headed out, it was so cool how everyone had lined themselves up in front of the car.
One of the boys got really excited, and ran around the people to see and screamed. Then, the whole line of people cheered, "Merry Christmas!" When they moved to reveal the car, the mom lost it. My mom ran over to hug her a pray with her. One of the boys lost it, too, and ran over to the grass. I went over to be with him. I guess I'm just like my mom because I did the same thing.
They were so excited. That's what joy is, to see someone who lost everything be so happy. To be a part of the community helping a family who lost everything. To give and expect nothing in return.
Remember I said it's not too late, you could still help this family? Turns out I was right about that! Team Christmas Buddy decided to prepare Christmas dinner for the family! They came to our church in their new car on Christmas Eve!. The boys hung out with us all day and all night - on Christmas Eve! They went our church's Christmas Eve evening candle light service and got to see the light show our church put on!
More donations came in after the Big Reveal!. The weekend after the Big Reveal, someone donated an X-Box One for the boys!!! Someone else donated a Wii and a ton of accessories for the daughter. More clothes for mom came in, too!
Oh! I can't forget about Classic Buick of Arlington! They provided a 42 point inspection of the car at no charge! My dad and uncle went to go pick it up while Team Christmas Buddy was getting all the rooms ready for the Big Reveal.
Bottom line, this was an amazing night, the best Christmas Buddy adoption ever! It's YOU guys who made it successful. Thank you for wanting to help, being willing to help, being happy to help! I'm going to work very hard on researching with my mom how to start a nonprofit organization for disaster relief. I really want to help more people affected by disaster.
Thank you God, for, making all of this possible. Thank you to all of you who donated items. A very special thank you to the person who donated the car, CMG Insurance, El Primo's, the family who drove to pick them up and took them to El Primos and the Big Reveal, Keller Williams - The Brenneman Team, Slim Chickens, FOX 4 News, CW33, Classic Buick in Arlington, the community member who donated a brand new mattress and box spring and the furniture company that upgraded it to a pillow top mattress at no charge after hearing the story, and thank you to the community member who stepped up and secured our first drop off site. A super big thank you to Team Christmas Buddy. The amount of time you gave to help me help this family was huge and I will never be able to thank you enough.
To the Christmas Buddy family, Merry Christmas. Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives. May God bless you on this new fresh start!
