By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Needy families residing in south Morgan County received a big boost for the holidays thanks to the 29th annual Falkville Christmas program. The project is sponsored by Falkville Lions Club in cooperation with local churches, schools, businesses and individuals.
Families with children received individually wrapped gifts and a shoebox filled with personal items such as hand soap, toothpaste, deodorant and candy for each child at The Source Building on Culver Road on Dec. 23. They also received up to 50 cans of food, a box of fruit, blanket, paper goods and a Bible. Boxes of canned goods and fruit were distributed to elderly couples and individuals the week before Christmas.
Santa greeted families as they arrived to pick up their food and gifts and invited the children to sit with him for a free photograph and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Refreshments were also served.
He said Falkville school students donated about 1,500 cans of food in addition to making cash donations. About the same amount of canned food plus 130 shoebox gifts were donated by Volunteer Services of Decatur. A love offering taken at a community gospel singing and a Lions Club fundraiser generated most of the money needed to purchase some of the gifts for the kids and toy donations at the Falkville Auction during November and December were also a big help.
The Falkville High FFA and Falkville Community Pride furnished most of the volunteers needed to wrap the gifts and about 14 Lions Club members helped with the distribution of food and gifts.