Good Ol' Fashion Charity

By Jen • December 22, 2015

Surrounded by all the negativity in society these days, a single working mom's hope of a good man walking into her life and shaking her to her core is needless to say...non-existent. So, instead of waiting for one, I put all my energy into creating a good life for my son through working hard at the office and working hard at home to show him he is loved and what life is supposed to be growing up with strong family values. Whether his family consisted of the traditional Mommy and Daddy dynamic or Mommy and Grandma's, Grandpa's, Godparent's, TT's(Aunt), Cousins, Neighbors, etc. They say it takes a village don't they?

Moving on…it was December last year and I saw the list of items that Jackson was receiving from his family and friends and I felt overwhelmed with gratitude and realized how blessed we truly were. I felt an urgency to reach out and spread my gratitude. I wanted Jackson to know the duty we have as blessed people to help others who may be less fortunate and even though he was only 2 1/2 , I figured now was as good a time as any to start instilling this creed.

I had been the first director at the Emmaus Mission Homeless Shelter many years ago and I remembered at Christmas we had about 22 children staying with us. I called the Executive Director, Jason Mitchell and asked him how many children were there for the holidays and he said 9.I requested their Christmas list to get some things for them. I knew that they get gifts from local churches and organizations based on their gender and age but I wanted to ask them myself what they wanted for Christmas so I went down to the shelter to make my own list. After arriving, I was told that there are now 12 children! YIKES! I may have gotten in over my head! I reached out on Facebook and asked if anyone had any last minute extra money to help support my cause! A co-worker volunteered to help me with one of the children and a former colleague from Noblesville reached out and asked if he could help. I responded with a YES PLEASE, OH GOOD LORD THANK YOU!! We spoke about the children and he decided that this was a big job so he was going to reach out to his police department(we were colleagues because we both had worked at bordering police departments but had never really spoke too much) for assistance.

Sure enough he had gotten approx.. $1200 in less than a week! With the help of my mother, Jackson and I went shopping with my list the following weekend and purchased new outfits, shoes, tablets, scooters, and more! It was the weekend before Christmas and my colleague, J. D. Floyd and I were sharing our excitement over Facebook messenger when he expressed concern that I was doing all the hard work. He expressed that he felt very useless even though his initiative was detrimental to what we were able to get for the children. He offered to bring his lovely daughters and come to Logan to help me wrap and deliver the gifts. During this time, there had been a lot of negativity about Law Enforcement so I decided to alert the newspaper and have them cover our gift giving to shed some refreshing positive light on our protectors who put their lives on the line every day. My best friend is in Law Enforcement and I have many friends from when I was active who are very good people. JD and his daughters, Lauren and Karsen, came up from Noblesville and we wrapped and delivered the gifts. We pretty much spent the day together. Our first scheduled date was the very next day for brunch:) My Prince Charming had been personally wrapped by God and delivered to me by Christmas and now we are engaged to be married! Love does exist in the most kind and generous ways. Good gets good. Now, we are full to the brim with gratitude and love. We have agreed to continue the tradition every year to buy special gifts for the children living at the shelter during the holidays. We may not be able to give them a home but we can help them feel joy during the most joyous time of the year! And to show them gratitude for bringing us together. Please share this story because when strangers ask how we met, the smiles and responses we get returned remind us of how blessed we truly are….and others can be too.

~Soon to be Mrs. Floyd 6/4/16

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