Southern Cross Car Club toy run fills record number of wish lists for Children’s Advocacy Center

For the past seven years, the Texoma-area Southern Cross Car Club has held an annual Toy Run to benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center of Sherman. 

The idea began six years ago when car club member Brandon White and two others decided they wanted to create something that would give back to the community. When White asked school counselors for good places to donate toys at Christmastime, they suggested the club look into the Children’s Advocacy Center.

The center provides services and a safe space for children during an active child abuse investigation process. After visiting the organization and learning more about their mission, the car club members agreed unanimously that this was the organization they wanted to support.

In the beginning, the Toy Run provided random toys to the center, but the club members felt they could provide a more personal experience. By developing relationships with center staff, the club was able to obtain wish lists from children ages 2-14 years old. These forms share age, gender and a list of items the recipient would like for Christmas.

Last year, the club was able to provide items to fill 21 lists. They were thrilled but wanted the result to be even bigger this year.

Southern Cross Car Club hosts car shows at Collinsville’s Pioneer Day festival and Whitesboro’s Peanut Festival. Thanks to the support from each city’s Chamber of Commerce, proceeds from both events went directly toward the Toy Run. Unfortunately, this year’s Pioneer Day car show saw a dip in participation, and the Peanut Festival was all but rained out. Funds were low this year.

“I knew God was going to provide for us,” White said. “I just wasn’t exactly sure how it was all going to work out.”

That’s when community members and car club members began to donate to the cause. Individuals made cash donations. Sunset Performance Engines heard White talking about the Advocacy Center and chipped in some money. Layne Lewter of Pirate Island struck a deal with the car club -- $50 from every Root Beer For A Year package the restaurant sold would go straight to the Toy Run (an amount that wound up totaling more than $2,300).

The car club’s goal this year was to fill 25 wish lists. When all was said and done, they were able to fill 30 lists and provide the center with around $3,500 to fill the wishes of other kids at the center. In total, the Southern Cross Car Club was able to provide about $10,000 worth of items and cash donations – a record high for the annual Toy Run.

“We couldn’t have done this without the support and generosity of a lot of people and businesses,” White said. The Southern Cross Car Club would like to extend a special thanks to Sunset Performance Engines; the Collinsville Area Chamber of Commerce; the Whitesboro Area Chamber of Commerce; Brad and Connie Reiter; Layne and Carrie Lewter at Pirate Island; Kenny Wilson at Wilson’s Automotive in Gainesville; Dry Clean Supercenter of Gainesville; Mindy Hirschi; Carolyn Maynard; Viki Dunn; and Rory and Pam Roberts.

Last Saturday, Dec. 6, the car club met at O’Reilly’s in Gainesville to load up multiple cars with toys. From there, they caravanned to the Children’s Advocacy Center where they unloaded the toys and helped spread some Christmas cheer.

The mission of the Southern Cross Car Club is to generate funds to help support other organizations.

“We’re just a bunch of car guys with big hearts who like to help people,” White said.

The club was overjoyed with this year’s Toy Run, but the 30 wish lists they were able to fill were only half of the children who could have benefited this year. The club is looking forward to making next year’s event bigger and better.

The Southern Cross Car Club is always looking for other organizations and worthy causes to support. To share suggestions, please call Brandon White at 903-815-9323.