Local residents and businesses came to the rescue of the county's Boys & Girls Club.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published December 19, 2003
SPRING HILL - The three women from Timber Pines shopped until they almost dropped.
"We're all dead tired," Terry Scovel said Wednesday as she, along with Betty Depew and Kathy Manning, recovered from a seven-hour shopping spree followed by five hours of sorting and wrapping gifts for five families of the Boys & Girls Club of Hernando County.
Funding the spending binge were 47 families of Countryside Village in Timber Pines who contributed about $1,000 to help the club and make Christmas merrier for its members.
"We're just overwhelmed by the generosity," Scovel said of her neighbors.
As she distributed gift certificates into the family gift bags Wednesday for delivery to the club, her sense of accomplishment was palpable.
"We have large lawn bags full of gifts," Scovel said. "They should get some really nice presents."
This has been an uplifting fall for the Boys & Girls Club of Hernando County. After financial problems almost forced the club to close its Applegate Drive center in September, corporate and private donations poured in.
In October, more than $17,000 in donations, led by $10,000 from Allstate Insurance Co. and its Allstate Foundation, bolstered the club's nearly empty bank account and enabled the organization to keep the center for games, athletics, homework assistance, prevention education and other activities to the club's 70 or so members.
About a month ago, Publix gave the organization a $10,000 donation, and Taco Bell just completed a fundraiser during which Pasco and Hernando county Taco Bell restaurants asked customers to put up $1 for a paper bell to benefit the club.
With the holidays approaching, the community and corporate generosity has not ebbed.
Countryside Village residents donated kick balls, footballs, hockey sticks, pucks and goals, board games and a portable microwave/convection oven to the club, said a grateful Yvonne Krajcovic, on-site manager for the club.
"They're doing a lot," said a pleased Krajcovic of Countryside Village residents. "We're very thankful."
The club has been visited by a few angels this season.
One is Esther Haskell, 74, a Timber Pines resident who raised four children of her own and remains committed to seeing youths flourish.
"Kids get so much from working with other people, other people who aren't their parents," Haskell said.
This fall, Haskell had just finished quilting, on a commission, a twin-bed coverlet when she read a newspaper article about the club's financial problems.
"I said, "This is where my money is going,"' Haskell said earlier this week.
Her commission is "a nice donation," said Rita Raenke, a Timber Pines resident who ordered the needlework. Haskell's check is in the mail to the club.
The generosity doesn't end there. Club manager Krajcovic said an anonymous family recently donated an air hockey table to the club. A woman who didn't give her name arrived with a Christmas tree, which the club's youthful members decorated with handmade ornaments.
A Christmas party is planned for the 6- to 17-year-old members today. The cost of the festivities is usually covered by the organization's operating budget. But this week, the club received a $2,527 check from the Hernando-Pasco Taco Bell restaurants fundraiser, so the donation will pay for the party and more, club treasurer Carol Freeman said.
This party could be even more spectacular than ever. Freeman received word Thursday that more gifts were en route from a nationwide campaign by Good Morning America, which teamed up with retailer Toys "R" Us to provide toys for Boys & Girls Club members across the country.
"I have no idea what's coming," an ecstatic Freeman said, "but there should be enough for every kid and maybe some extras for the extra-needy."
- Information from Times files was used for this report.
