Nearly 300 volunteers gathered on Friday to prepare for one of the biggest Christmas give-away events in Dallas.
On December 14 at 8:30 a.m., the Fair Park Automobile Building will host the 26th annual Christmas in the Park Celebration. The yearly gift-giving event, organized by the S.M. Wright Foundation, brings holiday cheer to those in need. Registration is required to attend, and the event is already full for this year.
“Given the current economic climate, continually rising inflation, and increasing income inequality, even more families will line up this year in hopes of receiving services from the S.M. Wright Foundation. As Dallas’ largest holiday charity event, Christmas in the Park can meet great needs in our city — but not without corporate and individual sponsors,” an online flyer for the event states.
“Together, we can raise enough funds through this year’s event to ensure that sufficient food, clothing, toys, household items, and furniture are available to those who need them most.”
“We will end up serving 20,000 [people] tomorrow,” S.M. Wright II, president and CEO of the foundation and the minister of People’s Missionary Baptist Church, told The Dallas Express.
When event attendees enter the Automobile Building on Saturday morning, the venue will be a sight to behold, with Christmas trees, winter-themed decorations, life-size Santa cutouts, tables stacked with food, and gifts — rows and rows of them.
Some of the items already lined up for the giveaway include hundreds of children’s coats and shoes, racks filled with men’s and women’s clothing, and countless bicycles for young children lined up in a row. As DX photographed the bikes, a bay door rolled open and volunteers carried in another wave of larger bicycles that appeared to be sized for teenyboppers.
Flanking the bikes, were a bounty of toys, including Mike Tyson Boxing sets and dolls with hair that can be styled.
“We have to evolve with the toys kids want,” Wright said, noting that this year there would be plenty of “drones, dolls, RC cars, helicopters and bikes.”
The giveaway is a community-wide effort. The S.M. Wright Foundation, launched in honor of Wright II’s late father, is the principal organizing institution, but support comes from all over, including from People’s Missionary church and businesses such as Ashford Capital and Remington.
One volunteer, Hailey Paine, from Pure Wellness, a company owned by Ashford, told DX that her company encourages employees to volunteer at the event.
“I feel it is a duty as a Christian to help people but it also just kindness … and it feels good to help,” Paine said.
This was Paine’s third year with the project and she spent the morning setting up toys, then decorating the Christmas trees that surround the room.
Nick Spinosa, whom Paine introduced as the “associate of the year “at Pure Wellness, felt a similar motivation.
He spent most of the day setting up the food.
“You know you are setting up food that will make it to someone’s plate,” he said.”I want to be a servant to all, as Jesus would call me to be.”
This work is not new, Wright II told DX.
“This started as a family project in 1998 … with 50 kids. In 2007, it was 10,000.”
The event moved to Fairpark’s Automobile building in 2008 and it has continued to grow ever since, he said.
“The whole meaning of Christmas is about Christ; We can remind everyone about Christ and unite them in celebration of Christmas,” Wright II concluded.