Wow, the 8th annual Kids Shopping Day was a huge success. The weather was cold but dry. The shoppers were lined up and ready to make out their shopping list for their loved ones long before 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14th, at Peace Church. We are just amazed at how the people in our community support KSD year after year. It has now become a Gladbrook Christmas tradition.

The Gladbrook American Legion Auxiliary Children & Youth Committee, Karen Pieper, Jeanne Paustian, and Becky Fish, chaired the project with help from Gladbrook area churches, organizations, & individuals. Everyone working together we created an opportunity for our area children to “shop” this Christmas. With thousands of items donated by the community we were able to create a “Christmas Store” where the kids selected gifts for their family.without any exchange of money.

More than 240 children, are largest number of shoppers, diligently looked over the many items searching for the perfect gift to give to 8-10 family members. As you might of guessed there were a lot of “Frozen” gifts , Hawk and Cyclone items, and beautiful wind chimes. Multiply number of gifts given by each shopper, times the number of shoppers, and we know close to 2,000 gifts went home to area families. The children came from all around our area Garwin, Marshalltown, Reinbeck, Green Mountain, Melbourne.. and, of course, many from Gladbrook and Lincoln too. One mother told us that her children came last year and that is all they talked about all year. The kids were pretty excited to have the opportunity to once again shop, all by themselves, for their family members.

Parents patiently waited for their children in the sanctuary of the church. They enjoyed listening to Christmas carols by June Bessman, viewing the beautiful decorations, and refreshments.

Volunteers helped the younger children shop. Many of the children were all smiles as they knew they had picked out the perfect gift for their moms, dads, brothers, sisters, etc. Other volunteers helped the children wrap their gifts and make out gift tags. Each tag stated “Jesus Loves You”. When the shoppers left their “treasures” were ready to be put under the tree.

Each shopper visited the “People of Bethlehem”, Becky Fish, Rev. Gideon Gallo, and Rose Russell, to receive a nativity card and a Nativity activity booklet as their gift.

An abundance of our good Gladbrook-Lincoln folks contributed in countless ways to this year’s KSD. Individuals, our local churches, and organizations worked together beautifully to serve the children and families in our area. A very special thank you to everyone that donated items or gave monetary donations for the Christmas Store; the guys that helped get the church ready, the many volunteers that helped set up the store, 60 plus people that helped on shopping day, and the guys that came back to put the church back to normal. The sparkle in the children’s eyes told us they appreciated everything. We needed each and every one of you in order to pull everything together. THANKS so much!

Tired and happy kids left for home with a large bag of gifts for loved ones in their hands, plus a seed, containing the awareness of our loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in their souls.

Many of the items that were left were boxed up and taken to Westbrook Acres, so their residents may shop for their loved ones.

Hopefully the 9th annual Kids Shopping Day will be held on Sat., Dec. 12h. As soon as you hang the 2020 calendar mark the date to help!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!