Day 2: Kingsport, Tennessee

Following an early breakfast, we headed down to the “Santa Train”, which turned out to be a very beautiful old Blue Train. It was sitting patiently waiting for us at the station behind the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce. When the ‘Food City’ trucks pulled up, everyone joined in and got to work loading the train with all the toys and food which had been packed in bins the previous evening.

When I first boarded the train, it looked very roomy and I wondered why everyone who had taken this trip before talked about what little space we would have on Saturday. Well, it didn’t take long for me to see why! The bins holding the gift bags for the boys and girls were stacked high and they blocked out all the light coming in from the windows. We also had tables full of larger toys that would not fit in the gift bags and would also need to be handed out. Then there was another carriage full of food bins and another carriage from which we would be constantly replenishing our supply to pass out. I was really starting to get excited!

So, while we went to lunch, the train departed Kingsport to make its way to Pikeville, KY where we would meet up with it the following day. But, just to recap on lunch, it turns out that I’m a ‘Southern Food’ lover! What delicious tasting food.

Back at the hotel, there was work to be done and I happily joined the CSX girls in their preparation for the big day. More volunteers started to arrive late in the afternoon and over dinner that evening I got to know some new friends that I would be working closely with on Saturday. It was fun! They even had a Christmas tree in the room which was very festive! Don’t I have a hard job? LOL

Stay tuned in to read the next installment…

Ashley
Distribution Department

Wow, where do I start? What an amazing adventure! I am still on a high from the whole experience! I had planned on blogging every day when away, but this didn’t work out because I had far too much to do there. So, I’m going to try and give you a daily synopsis and hopefully get across the excitement, enthusiasm and magic I experienced during the four days I spent with a lot of really wonderful people.

Day 1: Food City in Kingsport, Tennessee

Following an early flight, I finally arrived in Kingsport, Tennessee. What an amazing sight to see when we pulled into the car park at their local Food City. All I could see was mountains of toys, our toys! This packing event has been a tradition in these parts for many years now and they knew exactly what they were doing. What wonderful people! To the “uneducated eye” it might appear chaotic but boy did they have a system going. We packed 5,000 gift bags for boys and girls in approx. 3 hours. I felt so proud to see all the wonderful toys that KWN donated being packed into these Santa Train Gift Bags.

People were constantly thanking me, as the KWN representative, and complimenting us on the size of our donation and the wonderful variety of quality toys this year. Jamie from Food City, who has been involved in this event for the past seven years, said that donations were so low this year that without our donation, they would have been in big trouble. Apart from packing toys, Food City also had volunteers packing their donated food items for the train. There were a lot of smiles and laughter and everywhere there was an overall “feel good” atmosphere. It was dark when we finally came up for air after the job was done. It was an amazing thing to see everyone come together for this wonderful holiday tradition with a common goal: to reach out to the less fortunate, in particular the children and families of the Appalachians, and make their holidays a little brighter.

Stay tuned for Day 2…

Ashley
Distribution Department

Well, the big day is very close now and I am super excited!! It is the 67th year of the CSX Santa Train and I get to go on it! How lucky am I??? This train ride has become a very memorable tradition for the many families living in the Appalachian Mountains. It’s an early Christmas for them or, in a lot of cases, their ONLY Christmas. The train runs from Kentucky down through West Virginia and into Tennessee. It is packed with 15 tons of goodies, toys and gifts. Kids Wish Network packed and sent 11 pallets of toys, games, plush etc. to CSX and we are so happy to be involved in such a caring cause and wonderful project. We get to reach out to a lot of children and that is, after all, what we do best!!!

The actual train ride will be on Saturday, but my fun starts tomorrow with a 7a.m. flight from Tampa to Tennessee. There, I will meet up with the CSX people and from then on it’s a pretty hectic schedule. I’ve been told we will be sorting toys and packing 5,000 goodie bags on Wednesday night in preparation for the train ride. This is a huge volunteer event and it will be held outside the Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce from 5-9 p.m.

I have never been to this part of the country before, which makes it even more fun. In fact, I’m actually looking forward to some nice cold weather and I mean real cold weather, my Florida friends. Not 60º. LOL

I’ll keep you posted so stay tuned…

Ashley
Distribution Department