GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — On Saturday, Dec 19., the basement of New Faith Temple COGAC was transformed into a 'walk of hope.'
"We would normally have lots of kids mingling down here, but since we can not be in close proximity this year we still did not want to take the wonder away from Christmas this year," said First Lady Natasha Tupper. "So now we are having each family, each child, have their own personal wonderland, and own personal time to kind of give them a way to not think about the isolation that being in a pandemic has brought about."
The church's non-profit organization, The New Faith Community Development Corporation, has collected donations from the J.C. Huizenga Family Foundation, D&T Energy, Mercantile Bank, and more. Even big box stores like Meijer, Walmart, and Target chipped in.
With all the help from national, local, and personal donations, they exceeded their goal to help at least 250 families in need with both their food and Christmas drive.
"By the end of it we will have fed and gave to over 400 families," Pastor Deidric Tupper said.
After each family that registered arrived at their time, they were greeted with the rules of the churches wonderland experience.
Each family got their own, personal 15-minute slot to walk down the red carpet until they reached their larger presents, being able to stop along the way and put stocking stuffers into their toy sacks.
When the families finished, the church then offered them a free box of food.
The church volunteers then help carry all the gifts to the families cars and some of them helped deliver the bigger gifts, like bicycles, while the other members sanitized and swapped out gifts for the next scheduled family.
The kids got anything between princess crowns to Dove and Ax body wash, as family after family came to the basement shocked by the beauty of the presentation. Many told 13 ON YOUR SIDE that they were grateful for both the quality and quantity of gifts their child would now be able to have due to the church and communities generosity.
"Really this is humanity understanding that humanity needs each other, we need each other, and we thrive when we are together so that is what this is all really about." said Pastor Tupper
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