It’s almost Christmas time! Well, not quite, as we haven’t even made it to Thanksgiving yet. I have to admit that I am one of those ardent supporters of keeping Christmas in its December box…no early decorating or celebrating until the Thanksgiving leftovers have all been eaten.
Yeah, it’s 2020. I’m decorating early this year!
Nothing else is normal right now, so I say bring on Christmas!
You’ll start seeing decorations at our HSC locations pretty soon. Our office staff (and some of the lifeguards and instructors), love getting our pools ready for the holidays, setting out trees (yep, we’ll have one in the pool again this year, too!), putting up ornaments, and painting the windows with colorful wintery scenes.
Another tradition we have here at Houston Swim Club is supporting our local Toys for Tots. If you have not seen it yet, Toys for Tots is a US Marine Volunteer program that collects unwrapped toys and delivers them to less fortunate children under 12 over the holidays.
Every year we set up a donation box at each of our locations, and then bring them together for our Toys for Tots representatives to pick up and distribute. Every year we bring in more toys than the last, and last year was a record collection for us. We had a MOUNTAIN of toys and two full pickups. The level of support that our HSC families provided was truly incredible.
Now this year, I feel like your contribution is more important than ever. This has been a pretty rough year for everyone. Many of our staff, families, and fellow Houstonians have been severely impacted by the pandemic. As a result, Toys for Tots has reported that they are really struggling. There are so many families effected by layoffs, cutbacks, or medical bills, so many barriers for volunteers, and there are so many more children this year who will be in need on Christmas.
Enough, 2020. You aren’t taking Christmas, too!
We’re determined to break last year’s record of toy collections and knock 2020 out of the park. If you want to help us, it’s easy! Just bring any unwrapped toy – any toy big or small – to any of our locations and drop it in the collection box (this year we have generic brown cardboard boxes due to supply shortages).
That’s it! With Howey’s help, we’ll gather all the toys for pickup in early December. And as always we’ll take a big grand photo to show off the incredible generosity of our HSC families and swimmers.
If you’d like to donate, please bring your toy before Dec 11, 2020. For more information about Toys for Tots and other volunteer opportunities, visit www.toysfortots.org.
*Note: Above photo of the pool Christmas tree is from 2019. For more information on how we are staying SAFE in 2020, please visit our Health and Safety Guide.
Written by Chris Fossan, Houston Swim Club
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