When 7-year-old Annie Walker went to visit Santa Claus, she sat on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas. But after telling him her wish, she also asked for a second wish. Annie had noticed that manyof the children at her school were set to get nothing for Christmas. So she asked Santa to make sure that they could.
“Some people don’t have presents,” said Annie, who is now 9 years old. “Everyone can’t have what they want for Christmas, so me and my mom do a little stocking thing.”
Three years ago, Annie and her adoptive mother, Trina Walker [who owns the restaurant named after Annie on Mingus Avenue], started a project to collect donations and prepare stockings full of gifts for children atDr. Daniel Bright who needed them. That first year, they collected enough to provide one classroom with 30 stockings worth of gifts. Last year, Trina and Annie collected 60 stockings for 2 classrooms. This year, they anticipate 180 stockings, providing for six different classrooms throughout the K-8 school, and teachers as well.
“It is so nice to have so many donors stand up for us,” Trina Walker said. She pointed to the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce, the city of Cottonwood, and local businesses such as Kidzaam Dentistry, WestcottFuneral Home and Dutch Bros., which had donated gloves and hats for children. Walker was also able to raise thousands of cash donations from customers at her restaurant.
“I’m blessed that a lot of people want to come join us for the filling the stocking celebration and make sure that we’re doing well by our kids and our community,” Walker said.
Trina and Annie are collecting donations through Dec. 14, with plans to fill all the stockings on Dec. 16 and then give them out to classrooms on Dec. 20, the last day before Christmas break, along with an ice creamparty.
Classrooms are picked by a search for which children have the most need, with a focus on classes with high numbers of special needs students or students involved in English Language Learning. Trina and Annie hope to keep expanding their goals each year, in order to someday be able to provide stockings for every student in the district.
“There are many students where Christmas can be a difficult time,” DDB principal Jess Vocca said. “And then there’s many students where Christmas is the most joyful time of the year. What I think this does for students this time of the year at the school is that excitement and appreciation for other people. Annie comes to this school. I think it’s very powerful to show kids that one person can make a difference.”
Walker said that they hope to collect more gifts that are not just toys but also necessities, such as scarves or shampoo. Vocca said that she hopes that donors will provide children with something special they canremember for a long time, and pointed to winter clothing as a good example of something that kids will feel like is theirs.
Tricia Winters, Cottonwood Oak Creek School District’s executive assistant to the superintendent, has volunteered to make little Christmas ornaments for each of the children receiving gifts to hang ontheir stockings.
Annie has Sotos Syndrome, a developmental disorder that causes her to age at unusual speeds and causes learning disabilities, and Walker said that caring for her daughter has taught her even more about theimportance of caring for others in the community.
“It’s a good time to think about other people,” Walker said. “I’m blessed by her. She just shows me to take time to stop for other people. And I think that’s pretty impressive. Adopting has really showed me thatthere’s a lot to life, and a lot to being part of the community. That’s why we opened the restaurant, because we want to be part of the community. And we named it after the community, so that we can allow her to show that people with disabilities can do more, and she has shown that, that she can strive to do better for everyone. It’s incredible.”
Annie said that she feels happy to see all of the toys and supplies donated by people throughout the community.
“This is going to make a lot of kids smile.”
