‘What a great surprise’: Myrtle Beach coaches deliver toys to area children for Christmas
A convoy full of presents trekked through the Myrtle Beach area on Christmas Eve, but Santa was nowhere to be seen.
While it was far too early for Santa to be sliding down chimneys, a similar gift-giving operation was underway to help make Christmas memorable for local youth.
An annual grassroots charity operation organized by Myrtle Beach High School coaches Jeremy Howard and Docshee “Doc” Moore took place for a couple hours Tuesday afternoon, as a handful of cars swung through several neighborhoods, delighting kids with toys just before Christmas.
“The element of surprise,” Moore, the Seahawks’ linebackers coach, said of the unannounced visits.
Howard, Moore, DTLR manager Ciarya Webb and DTLR employee Rickie Greene walked through the neighborhoods, knocking on doors to alert children to the table of toys set up for them.
“I thought ‘What a great surprise,’” said Carolina Breeze resident Maryellen Tillinghast, who retrieved presents for her four grandchildren who would be visiting on Christmas Day. “I’m very excited because I didn’t have anything for them.”
After the charitable citizens made their rounds through Carolina Breeze, children began appearing from all directions of the neighborhood as they made their way toward a setup that included a table with toys that overflowed onto the pavement. Howard directed, allowing the girls to go first and soon after the boys joined in, examining gifts while narrowing down their choices to two each.
“There’s a lot of kids in the community that probably won’t receive toys,” said Howard, a Seahawks girls basketball assistant coach, JV boys hoops head coach and a director at the Boys and Girls Club of the Grand Strand. “Yesterday we were going to give them out, but we got rained out. But today we bounced through the neighborhoods and the communities and we had success today.”
DTLR, an urban retail store located at Coastal Grand Mall, joined Howard and Moore this year, rounding up toy donations through a program that provided shoppers discounts. Those gifts were taken to to Mary C. Canty Recreation Center, where they awaited Tuesday’s drive. Howard, who grew up in the Booker T. Washington community — another of the areas the group visited — stressed the importance of giving back to where he grew up.
“It’s reaching out, doing the behind-the-scenes stuff,” said Howard, who played basketball at Myrtle Beach High. “I just love my community, so any way I can help I do. It’s not finance all the time. Sometimes they just want you to be around and show that you’re here and have a presence. That’s a big love thing right there.”
For many, it uplifts communities whose residents might not have the money to buy Christmas presents, Tillinghast said.
“It really makes the community come together and children are happy because they don’t normally get stuff like this,” she said.
After each child had toys in their hands, the gift givers hung around Carolina Breeze for a while, greeting kids while also receiving thank yous from lit-up faces.
Howard, who was teaching Hayden Waldo to play with a yo-yo, later summed up what the event means for the organizers, noting how seeing the joy on the kids’ faces makes it all worth it year after year.
“That’s the biggest thing, that’s what it’s all about: just seeing them smile,” Howard said. “We know that these two toys that they receive will make their Christmas because some probably won’t have any tomorrow. Just to get two from us, that’s all that matters.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 5:19 PM.
