Pahrump Valley residents are quite generous this year, according to Amanda Sprayberry, organizer of a special holiday toy drive for Nye County families.
Sprayberry is an English instructor at Pahrump’s Great Basin College and her work extends to school’s social work program, coordinated by Laura Debenham.
Debenham is running the toy drive campaign for the Division of Child and Family Services in Nye County, and over the past weekend, Sprayberry, alongside a few colleagues and volunteers, set up in front of Walmart for the better part of six hours to collect toys for less fortunate children in Nye County.
“We were overwhelmed with the community support,” she said. “So many people just poured their hearts out and provided toys. We have four large boxes filled to the brim with over 100 toys, so we’re just overjoyed. We also gratefully accept gently used toys.”
Saturday’s event was the first of a multi-day toy drive.
The second act began on Monday of this week and runs through Friday, Dec. 23, from 8 a.m., to 5 p.m., at GBC, located at 551 E. Calvada Blvd.
“This is our first time doing it and we want to continue doing it annually for Christmas and maybe back to school but for now we are doing it annually for Christmas,” she said.
Regarding the toy drive at Walmart, Sprayberry said emotions were overflowing all around.
“I think I said ‘Merry Christmas’ hundreds of times today,” she said. “We were hugging and we had people who shared their experiences being in foster care. It was really a wonderful experience. I would do it time and time again.”
Sprayberry said there are 11 foster homes in Nye County. The number of foster youth is more than 100, she said, but not all of those children are in homes. Many of them will receive toys collected at the drive.
“We will distribute them to the Division of Child and Family Services, and from what we understand they are distributing them to southern, central, and northern Nye County families,” she said. “If they were to donate to other regions of Nye County, that would be to maybe one or two families specifically, but most of them would be donated to the southern region.”
Sprayberry said folks can provide cash donations. For more information, email her at amanda.sprayberry@gbcnv.edu.
For those who wish to learn more about the GBC social work program, contact Laura Debenham at (775) 727-2000.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes