Holiday Spirit
This year I was the autocrat for my Shire's annual Yule Revel. Kinda scary being in charge, but still pretty spiffy. Things went well and we got toys for our Toys for Tots drive. This year we got 62 toys total from people bringing toys as a site fee, and from purchasing toys from the money used for folks who paid who did not have a toy to donate.
Tonight we took the toys to the children's ward at Mercy Medical, the local hospital here. A few of us went in garb and we got the toys in a cart. We headed up and the nurses were very happy to see us. As we talked to them to let them know what the SCA was, a girl and her mother came out of one of the rooms. The girl couldn't have been more than 10 years old and was hooked up to some oxygen. She was pale and looked very depressed as her mother walked with her worried, but encouraging her along.
We motioned the girl over to the cart of toys and as we said we brought them for the kids here in the hospital and she got to pick what she wanted, her face just lit up and she smiled. It took her mind off her troubles for a while as she looked through the toys and eventually settled on a paint by numbers. Her mother was also very happy... and seeing that just made everything with the party worth it.