Gifts for Christmas
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on December 18, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Anyah Whitehead, 9, stands in line with her new Barbie toy as she waits to have her photo taken with Santa. Anyah didn't have any trouble picking a toy out of the hundreds available because the Barbie Color and Crimp was on her Christmas list.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Kaleb Ayers, 4, gets a good look at the photo he took with Santa after picking out his toy.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Azariah Armstrong, 6, smiles as she shows her new scooter to her brother Jabrion Bynum-Armstrong, 8. Having their photo taken with Santa Jarbrion looked and Azariah and their brother Kenygel Bynum, 8, and said "This is too good to be true."
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
A bookbag full of treats almost drags the floor behind a boy as he walks back to his parents carrying a Batman toy Saturday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Anthony Boykin Jr., left, 6, and Kimora Walker, 9, pose for a photo with Santa Claus during the Empty Stocking Fund Party Saturday at Goldsboro High School.
Trahn Bryant lost her house and her car during Hurricane Matthew.
Her three children gained everything Saturday morning when they received a toy and clothes for Christmas.
Anyah Whitehead, 9, Kamaurye Whitehead, 7, and Phoenix Merchant, 3, showed their mother the new toys they picked out at the 104th Empty Stocking Fund event at Goldsboro High School.
"We got displaced from the hurricane, and we lost everything," Mrs. Bryant said. "So this has brightened up their day."
Anyah grabbed a Barbie styling head doll, while Kamaurye got an RC truck he named "Doug."
"It's a good name," Kamaurye said.
His little sister Phoenix stood by her mother and held tightly to her new Barbie doll.
Mrs. Bryant's children were among hundreds of students who walked through the school's library to pick from baby dolls to toy trucks to toy ovens to Nerf guns. After they picked out a toy, they had their picture taken with the jolly ol' Saint Nick himself, Santa Claus, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.
Wayne County teachers chose 653 students to receive toys and clothes for Christmas, and the Goldsboro News-Argus asked the community to help children in need.
The community responded.
People donated toys, clothes from Belk and fruit. Families filled the school's auditorium to listen to Christmas music before their children were called to enter the library for their new gifts.
Twenty National Honor Society students and from Eastern Wayne High School and two students from the Goldsboro Mayor's Youth Council volunteered to take the hand of a child and guide them through maze of toys.
Newly-crowned 2017 Miss Goldsboro Courtney Smith, 19, and 2016 Most Outstanding Teen Peyton Brown, 15, entertained the waiting crowd with dancing and Christmas tunes. The Eastern Wayne choral group sang holiday songs, while Disney Princesses -- Ariel, Jasmine and Tinker Bell -- from the dress-up party store Coco Darlings, walked the aisles of the auditorium to hug children.
Brianna King, 4, enjoyed the princesses, and she named her new baby doll, "Elsa," from Disney's "Frozen" movie.
"I haven't been Christmas shopping. I don't work," Brianna's mother, Shannika Williams said."So, she don't have any presents. Really, what she loves is toys."
Ms. Williams said she worked at Bojangle's on U.S. 117 until it was damaged by the hurricane. She said she is a single mother, going to school to be an accountant and looking for a job, but she loved seeing the smile on her daughter's face.
"Today was her first time coming, so she is very excited about it," she said.
Ms. Williams and Mrs. Bryant left the school with their children. They held boxes of clothes as their children stared at their toys.
"We have to start over," Mrs. Bryant said. "They really don't have much, and neither do I."
"It means everything because they had nothing and they're so deserving of everything," she said.