If you’ve read to this point, you know how incredibly much I care for these people and supporting them with any type of relief. As the donations rolled in, the collection became large. At first I held it all in my neighbor’s unfinished basement (thanks Russ and Jenny). As delivery time got closer, we brought out the boxes and sorted all the clothing and donations by size and sex (thanks Copper Oaks Relief Society sisters). From this time forward we kept them in my garage. Every day the boxes multiplied. I had people, some I knew, some I didn’t, knocking on the door multiple times a day bringing boxes. It became obvious we would need a moving truck.
One sub for Santa sponsor e-mailed me a photo of her stash. She had been so moved by the needs of this family, a newly single father with six young children, that she with the help of her family and friends collected 24 moving boxes of items for the family. I knew right then that a brigade of mini-vans caravanning to Logan would not cut it. I’d never find that amount of vans with available drivers.
Not wanting to spend money on a truck I shouted out to my fb friends to see if anyone had access to a moving type van that I could use for free minus the gas. The only one who responded to my multiple attempts was my BFF Heather who told me Utah Dave, the Salt Lake Valley’s real estate mogul (minus the Trump-style gold leafing) had trucks he lent to his clients.
Seeing many Utah Dave advertisements, I had actually already contemplated this thought, but hoped I might find a better option before I exercised a shot-in-the-dark option. Since no other option presented itself, I gave Utah Dave or Robinson Real Estate a call, explained my situation and was given a “maybe”. Through the magic of Facebook, later that night I connected with Utah Dave himself via Heather. Dave said that’s he’d be happy to lend his truck for my cause.
So…we had a sleigh and a garage full of items. Growing by the hour.
Then, all the boxes were inventoried, and loaded up with the help of Steve and some of our favorite and best neighbor men.
At first I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough to fill the truck. Then I was afraid I’d have too much and not have space for it all.
In the end, we had plenty of room, but did a great job of filling the truck, er…I mean SLEIGH.
We had just enough room to pick up another load in Riverdale. My friend from High School’s son Tyler made this his Eagle Scout project.
We had just enough room on the truck to load his blankets and underthings collection.
The next morning at first light we dropped the kids off at their cousins to play all day as we drove the SLEIGH up north.
You know I had to drive the truck myself. It was my victory lap. I enjoyed every second of it too.
Steve and I quite enjoyed the ride in the loud Utah Davemobile. We (me) rocked out to FM100’s selection of Christmas music (Unrelated question…why have I not heard any new Justin Beiber Christmas Album songs on the radio? I know he has a Christmas Album this year. I mean, how many times an hour do I really have to listen to Mariah Carey sing All I Want For Christmas is You. I mean, I get it, she wants me for Christmas. Give me the Beibs. I have Beiber Fever and I don’t care who knows it).
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