Woman wants a merry Christmas for her family

By: | SCNow
Published: November 28, 2009

Effie wants to give her nine children and grandchildren, three of whom she adopted, a merry Christmas this year.

But the Darlington resident has been in and out of the hospital for the past couple of months with an infection in her small intestine. Doctors think she might have Crohn’s disease, a chronic intestinal illness with no cure.

“This year is really bad because of all the medical bills. That’s where the money goes,” she said.

Effie is a former truck driver who lost her job when the company relocated out of the Pee Dee. Her husband is disabled and is also out of work.

But she said she’s not thinking about herself this holiday season.

“I just want the children to have a good time,” Effie said.

For this reason, she applied for assistance this year through the Salvation Army’s Empty Stocking Fund, a joint effort between the Salvation Army and the Morning News to bring Christmas to the Pee Dee’s impoverished families.

People who would like to help families struggling through the holidays can donate to the Empty Stocking Fund in several ways:

By calling the Salvation Army at (843) 662-4461.
By dropping off toys or monetary donations to the Salvation Army office building at 2210 Hoffmeyer Road in Florence.
By donating new, unwrapped toys for children through age 12, which will be distributed from the Salvation Army’s toy shop Dec. 22 and 23.
By giving monetary donations at any Florence BB&T bank branch: 605 S. Irby St., 1831 W. Evans St., and 407 W. Second Loop Road. Checks should be made payable to the Empty Stocking Fund, c/o Salvation Army.

Another way to help the fund make Christmas brighter for those in need is to donate at a Salvation Army Christmas kettle.

People also can adopt a family for the holidays — choosing what size family they’d like to help, whether to provide toys, clothing or food, and then dropping off new and unwrapped gifts the Salvation Army office by Dec. 14 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Families will be able to pick up gift bags Dec. 22 and 23.

The Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation Board will make an initial $10,000 donation to the fund again this year. If the community raises at least $20,000 on its own, the foundation will match it with another $20,000.

An Empty Stocking Fund donation form can be found on page 3B of today’s edition.

— Staff writer Samantha Shepard can be reached at (843) 317-7261. Comment on this story at www.scnow.com.