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 by
Nikki Artale
nikkiartale@cox.net
(702) 279-7001
Las
Vegas' Secret Santa
An old man was on the beach throwing star fish into the ocean. There
were hundreds of starfish on the beach. He stooped down and one at a
time he picked up a star fish and tossed it into the water. People were
watching him and one person asked him why he was doing this, because
there were so many star fish on the beach he would never be able to save
them all. As he was about to throw one in he said “It matters to this
one”.
She told this story with tears in her eyes. That is what it means to
Dusty Buckel as she helps one family at a time. It matters to each
child.
Dusty had a list of 300 names of children who did not have any
hopes of gifts for Christmas but thanks to all her friends and family
she was able to give them the gifts they wanted. She first became aware
of some of these children who did not have shoes and were wearing 4
pairs of socks. They did not have coats and were wearing layers of
sweaters to keep warm.
She searched to find people that would take the names of families and
buy them items that they needed and wanted for Christmas. That is how
the “Secret Santa” started. Lots of people and business’s donated items
and then the gifts were tagged to the family names. While I was at
Dusty's house I saw a man delivering his gifts and then offered an
entire house of furniture for a family that had lost everything they had
in a fire. Another man delivering items to “The Island”, a drop off
point for families to come and get items, came back with 2 new bicycles
when he heard they needed more bikes for the children.
An entire truck was loaded with clothes for the homeless Vets and
brought to “The Island”.
When I entered Dusty's home I was surprised to see that every room on
the first floor was filled with boxes and bags of gifts that were to be
delivered. There were so many bikes lined up. One man had bought 11
bikes for the children. There was barely any room to walk through the
house. She was so organized with the list of 300 names as she checked
off the completed families.
Working side by side with her was her daughter Dailene Rhodes and her
granddaughter.
A lot of people kept coming in to bring more gifts and the rooms were
getting fuller. After Dusty delivered some of the gifts, the wrapping
was the next big event. I volunteered to come back that evening for a
couple of hours to help with the wrapping. I love wrapping presents so I
spent happy moments there. A lot of my happiness was knowing that a lot
of children would be waking up on Christmas morning to find beautiful
toys and clothes. That is the spirit of Christmas. The giving part. The
presents were put into bags tagged with the family numbers and then
loaded into the truck again.
They finished wrapping at 4:00am.
I only found out about this last week, so I told Dusty that I would love
to help her next Christmas and I will get an early start in working with
her to make one child at a time happy. Happy Holidays and may all your
wishes and dreams come true in 2008.
If you have any questions or comments contact Nikki Artale at
nikkiartale@cox.net or
call at 702 279-7001.
Get Healthy and Wealthy go to:
www.meltingoffthefat.com
www.isamovie.com
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