Thanks to the generosity of a long list of donors, the Corbin Rotary Club’s Empty Stocking Fund Christmas gift giveaway program was able to
spend over $32,000 this year to provide shoes, toys, books and more to a total of 530 local kids.
In addition to these items, about 80 bicycles were also given away to local boys and girls, helping to make this a bright and merry Christmas for them and their families.
“It went really well,” said Empty Stocking Fund President Joe Caldwell of this year’s giveaway, which took place on Saturday, Dec. 20, at Immanuel Baptist Church in Corbin. “We had a lot of Little Caesars pizza that was eaten, and thanks to all of our volunteers it went as well or better than it ever has in the past.”
Merry Christmas: Hundreds of kids packed into the gym at Immanuel Baptist Church in Corbin this past Saturday for the Corbin Rotary Club’s annual Empty Stocking Fund gift giveaway. They also had the chance to meet Santa Claus himself.
Caldwell has served as president of the Empty
Stocking program for the past 21 years, but he has been involved since he first joined the Corbin Rotary Club in 1989.
At that time, Empty Stocking had only been in existence for about a year.
Caldwell said that he and other organizers are always asking what might be done to help make it a little bit easier to make sure that families get what they need in a timely manner. It has been an ongoing labor of love for all of these years, and has positively impacted the lives of thousands of children.
In addition to receiving pizza and gifts, kids were also able to take pictures with Santa Claus at Saturday’s giveaway event. Volunteers assisted with locating and gathering items, and helping families to load items before leaving the church.
Those volunteers included Corbin Rotary Club members, as well as oth-ers. The Corbin Rotary Club thanked several people in a post on their official Facebook page Monday.
This included Immanuel Baptist Church, for the use of their gymnasium Friday to wrap presents and on Saturday to give them away. Corbin Wal-Mart was also thanked for their assistance in procurement of the gifts.
The Rotary Club thanked the Corbin High School
baseball team and the Laurel County Schools HOSA – Future Health Professionals chapter for their collective help with setting up tables and wrapping gifts Friday evening. “[Thanks to] all the Corbin Rotary Club members who showed up to work on Friday and Saturday,” the post said.
“This is our club’s biggest event every year, and it takes a lot of hands on deck. Extra shout out to Benjamin Wilson and Joe Caldwell for organizing and leading the effort.”
“Big thanks to every individual, business and organization that donated money or items for the post added. “We couldn’t do it without your generosity. The community really supports this undertaking.”
