Peaches Turner & Friends Deliver A Mountain of Toys!
Peaches Turner, surrounded by piles of donated toys and displaying a commendation from Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe for service to the community.
Here’s the thing about working for a nonprofit: when you’re paid to help others, sometimes that ‘help’ can get complicated. Budgets and best practices and layers of partnership negotiations and red tape with the city and on and on—it’s all good and helpful work, but it can be exhausting—and we can start believing that’s the only way to care for our community.
Today, Peaches Turner reminded me that serving in the community doesn’t have to be complicated. She works alongside us at the City Heights CDC and serves families every day at work, but her service goes way beyond that—she’s a powerhouse for good in the community! The mountain of toys she worked hard to get donated to kids all over City Heights is a testament to the fact that helping can be straight-forward and sweet. In fact, the most beautiful kinds of service are often quiet, unnoticed, and very subtle.
“I know what it’s like to go through tough times,” Peaches shared as the moving truck backed into the drive.
“Santa Claus is here!” Laughed the driver as he slid the truck’s door up and open to reveal a mountain of boxed and bagged toys.
The sheer volume of toys donated was staggering.
Peaches Turner receives an award from the office of Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe for service to the community.
Volunteers jumped in to haul it all inside to be organized and distributed. A representative from Council President Pro Tem Monica Montgomery Steppe’s office and a photographer were present to honor Peaches for her contributions to the community, and they jumped in to help haul boxes, too!
As we passed boxes off the truck in an assembly line, someone mentioned, “I’m just here because I love Peaches.”
And that’s the power of a community member like Peaches. They inspire others to join in for the love of community and the joy of helping. A relative of Peaches’ said it well: “When you know what it’s like, when you’ve gone without and been afraid of the future, you want to make sure others don’t go through that, too. Ms. Peaches has gone through it and she came out the other side wanting to help as many people avoid that pain as possible. That’s why I call her mom.”
Rickie Brown carries boxes of donated toys to be organized and given out for Christmas.
After the boxes and bags were piled high and Peaches had received her commendation from Councilmember Montgomery Steppe’s office, the volunteers all left, but the work had really only just begun. Peaches and her friends will spend countless quiet, unseen hours organizing and prepping the toys for delivery. Then they’ll deliver the toys to several schools, churches, and nonprofits in City Heights over the holidays.
On behalf of all those kids and the whole community: thank you to Peaches and those working alongside her. Thanks to all of you Helpers who quietly hold this community together.
You don’t get the credit you deserve, but your empathy-fueled service is inspiring to us all and we’re grateful.
Note: this toy drive is community-driven and a collaboration between several people, led by Peaches and a few other community members. This isn’t a City Heights CDC program, but with Peaches’ permission and Rickie Brown’s encouragement we wanted to celebrate her efforts. Many staff like Rickie, Peaches, Maria Cortez, and others go above and beyond for the community, and that example is too beautiful not to share. Thanks for reading!