Christmas Happiness: Woman gives for more than 30 years
Published 12:00 am Thursday, December 1, 2016
- Illustration by Mark Brincefield, for the Salisbury Post.
By Rebecca Rider
rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Betty Sunding has been donating to Christmas Happiness for nearly half her life. Now in her 80s, Sunding began donating to Christmas Happiness in 1981 after her son, Timothy died in a car accident.
“That’s when I started. That year,” she said.
Sunding said she’d seen Christmas Happiness in the paper for several years, and thought it sounded like a good cause.
“I just think it’s good to help out people that are down and out,” she said.
She made that first donation in honor of Timothy and kept it up, year after year. When her husband D.E. “Gene” Sundling died in 2005 at the age of 69, Sunding started giving a little more.
Sunding has three surviving children, and said she’s got seven grandchildren and even a few great-grandchildren. But she continues to preserve the memory of those she lost — both at home, and through giving.
“I just wanted to do something to memorialize them a little bit,” she said.
The Salisbury Post collects the contributions and the Salvation Army of Rowan County distributes the donations to the Christmas Happiness Fund. Families who qualify receive a voucher for each eligible child. Contributions will be collected through Christmas Day.
Donations may be delivered to the Salisbury Post, 131 W. Innes St., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. Donations can also be mailed to the Salisbury Post Christmas Happiness Fund, P.O. Box 4639, Salisbury, N.C. 28145-4639. Make checks payable to the Christmas Happiness Fund and indicate how you want your donation listed.
Wednesday’s donations:
- Matt Storey and Erin Grey $200
- Mr. and Mrs. Robert Loeblein $100
- In appreciation for and in honor of all donors, customers and volunteers of “yard sales for Cystic Fibrosis.” by Helen and Ralph Brown $100
- In memory of Timothy and D. E. “Gene” Sunding by Betty Sunding $200
