By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
Bobby R. Garner received a $25 holiday bonus check 50 years ago and decided it should help provide Christmas in Denton for a needy family.
His $25 went toward a doll, clothing and food for the family’s children and started what has become “Project Santa,” one of the more inspirational Christmas outreach stories in Davidson and Rowan counties.
“It’s amazing what God has done with $25,” says Bobby Garner’s son, Keith, who lives in Salisbury. “We always look at it that way.”
Project Santa spread this Christmas Eve to about 500 children, as 14 volunteers dressed in Santa Claus suits and the “elves” who helped them visited families along 31 different routes Monday.
In all, close to 100 people donated their time Monday to assembling all the food and toy boxes at First Baptist Church in Denton and taking part in the deliveries, which began about dusk and tried to wind up by midnight.
Boxes for Rowan County families were transported by trailer to St. Matthews Lutheran Church for distribution in the southeastern part of the county, which required two Santas on seven routes with six to seven deliveries per route.
Most of the other routes were in Davidson County with the Denton area as a major focus.
“The volunteers are really the ones who make it happen,” Keith Garner said.
Food Lion also played a major role in providing 380 food boxes of staples such as turkey or ham, rice, cereal, canned goods, flour, cookies, macaroni and cheese and more. It’s the seventh year the company has stepped forward in a big way, the Garners report.
“They donate a lot of food,” Keith Garner said.
Other contributors and volunteers are too numerous to name at the risk of leaving someone out, and the Garners also keep the names of receiving families confidential, unless they receive permission for media purposes.
All kinds of individuals and groups become involved in each year’s Project Santa, including whole families, church groups, retirees, teachers, disabled veterans and civic organizations, some of which have been inspired to start their own holiday giving programs.
“This thing has gotten kind of big,” Keith Garner says.
Project Santa starts about two months before Christmas for Bobby and Keith Garner. They begin visiting families on evenings, Saturdays and Sundays and making a list of the children who should be visited on each Christmas Eve route.
This year, Keith’s wife, Carr, and Bruce Peck helped with that pre-delivery process, which has become a major undertaking.
The thousands of dollars worth of toys, electronics, batteries, clothing and coats that are donated are new and pretty impressive, Keith Gardner says. They include items such as dolls, DVD players, video game systems, radio-controlled cars and televisions from places such as Best Buy, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.
More than $20,000 worth of toys and food were probably distributed Christmas Eve, though the final totals haven’t been added up.
Project Santa has continued to be a family mission for the Garners, and they have 50 years worth of stories connected to their annual outreach effort. Bobby, 72, lives in Denton and works as a sales representative for a commercial and import distribution company. Keith, 47, is a regional manager for Smith’s Medical.
Needless to say, the Garners and all the other Project Santa volunteers are a tired lot every Christmas Day. A tired, but happy lot.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com.