Residents help when families are left off list

Brunswick rallies to help after glitch at Salvation Army.

Ca pt. Billie Powell sat beaming in the lobby of the Salvation Army office in Brunswick as one by one, smiling locals with boxes and bags full of toys and clothing fifiled through the door.

Each was answering the emergency call then on profit put out recently asking for clothing and toys for 50 families who were accidentally left out of the annual Angel Tree gift program because of a computer glitch.

“I didn’t want those babies to go without. When I was a young mother and my daughter was about 4 years old, I had to go to the Salvation Army for help, so I wanted to pay it back,” one donor said, passing bags of toys to Powell.

She certainly was not alone. A steady stream, reminiscent of the classic Christmas fifilm “It’s a Wonderful Life,” continued to deliver all day long. For Nicole Morgan, hearing about the shortfall left her no choice but to act.

“I have two children myself and I just couldn’t imagine, as a parent, not being able to provide for them at Christmas, so I ran out and started getting stuff,” Morgan said with a huge grin.

For case manager Audrey Easterling, who has been with the organization many years, the response was not surprising.

“It’s been this way all day long. But I’ve always said that all Glynn County needs is to know that there’s a need and they are going to fill it ... they just need to know,” she said.

For Powell, who is new to the area, the community’ s show of support was beyond belief.

“We’ve only been here six months, so we still don’t know a lot of people here. We were devastated when the families came last week and we couldn’t fifind” any records of their requests. “We agreed to help these families and we had nothing,” she said.

Powell credited the dedication of board members and volunteers who, after discovering the error, rushed to spread the word and later scoured the county to collect toys for the children.

“I called our board member, Donna Stillinger, and told her what happened and she said she was going to get the word out. Donna Legget ( with corporate development for t he Salvation Army) helped too,” she said.

“But this is just amazing. We would never have dreamed ... of a response like this. Brunswick really showed up and showed out.”

There were still some areas of need, even with monetary donations rolling in and a room nearly filled with toys and clothing.

“We still need things for girls and boys ages 9- 12. We need diapers and preemie diapers. In fact, there is this one single mother who has a two year old and also a preemie who is in ICU in Savannah. She works every day and I don’t know how she’s keeping it together,” she said. “So we’d love to have some more preemie stuff for her ... little bitty diapers.”

Powell noted that individuals as well as businesses jumped in to help. The local Target, she said, was going to apply the Salvation Army’s tax ID number to allow customers to donate directly from the store.

The f amilies who were left off the angel tree have picked up their items, but Powell notes that the agency will continue to accept items and monetary donations, all of which will she said will be put to good use regardless of when they arrive. Powell i s hopeful the support will continue because the need will not disappear after Christmas.

“There has just been so much ... little grandmas coming in with their check books. I had this one lady who came in and said, ‘ if you ever need anything . . . you c all me.’ I was just like ‘ thank you, Jesus.’ I love Brunswick,” Powell said with a smile.