Blessings come in all sizes, and the community’s support is needed to help make our junior enlisted military families’ holiday season brighter. No gift is too small or too large to donate to make the Best PCS (Permanent Change of Station) Ever! Military Christmas Store possible again this year. Last year, more than 90 families who signed up, with 300 children, were able to shop for free from the well-stocked pop-up store.
The store is organized by the Best PCS Ever! small, but mighty team of Taylor Smart, Ralph West, Donna Dameron, and Caitlyn Thiss, along with their crew of 60 volunteers. In less than two days, Parish Hall at Graham Memorial Church transforms into a magical holiday gift land. One of the highlights is the wheeled toy section, which includes bikes, skateboards, scooters, roller blades, or multi-functional walker/push toy combos for every child. The tables are sorted by age and filled to the brim with the latest toys and gifts to choose from. There is a designated area for indoor and outdoor games, which are great for family bonding. A special stocking stuffer section, which includes small gifts and playdough, as well as a book selection station, always offer fun options from which parents can select.
After a personal shopper helps parents select gifts for their children, they are then escorted to the gift-wrapping station, where everything is festively adorned with wrapping paper and bows. Diaper bags, filled with newborn essentials, are given to expectant moms. Parents can shop uninterrupted, with childcare for the evening overseen by Director of Family Ministries Rebecca Smith.
With a deadline of December 8, the need is especially urgent this year to be able to continue this much needed tradition. Toys can be dropped off at a variety of locations including the Police Station, the Fire Department, City Hall, the Shores, Graham Memorial Church, and the Community Center.
Monetary donations of cash or checks can be made to Best PCS Ever! and dropped off at Graham Memorial Church or online through GoFundMe. Gift cards are also welcome and are especially appreciated by teenagers. Some of the most requested gifts include Barbies, Spiderman, Bluey, Cocomelon, and Legos, and all items are welcome. Even giving $20 is meaningful, when combined with the donation of gifts, to truly brighten the holidays for so many local military families. You can also sponsor a station, like the play dough section, for $200. Know that whatever you can do makes an impactful difference.
The Best PCS Ever! team knows how to stretch every dollar they receive. For the 200-300 bikes and other wheeled items, they spend about $7,000. The team estimates that they give away approximately $25,000 in gifts to make the holidays brighter for the local junior enlisted military families. Taylor, who is a veteran and military wife herself, shared that last year she met a young military mom, who had just moved here with twins who had cerebral palsy, and told her about what the Best PCS Ever! offers. She cried as she selected handicapped accessible toys for her boys. “That chance encounter led us to bless this family, whose husband was deployed, and made an incredible difference,” she shares.
Besides the Christmas Store, the Best PCS Ever! team sponsors a monthly diaper and food distribution, on the second Tuesday of the month, for which they are always looking for non-perishable food donations that can be dropped off at Graham Memorial Church. In September, they sponsored a ball gown giveaway and were able to gift more than 190 beautiful gowns to enlisted women and military wives.
Having volunteered for this event for the past two years, I can truly tell you that once you experience the joy of helping these deserving families, you will be hooked, whether it be to give gifts or volunteer in some capacity. I have personally met parents who had no idea how they were going to provide presents for their children and were thankful that Christmas would be brighter after shopping at the Best PCS Ever! Christmas Store.
