Children to Experience the Thrill of Christmas Shopping through Regifting

October 31, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

Christmas is the season for giving and children who participate in this year’s 9th Annual Patchwork Regifting Event will have a chance to experience that by doing something special for their parents and total strangers.

Regifting gives children ages 4 to 12 an opportunity to shop for their parents or caregivers at no cost. The gifts are then wrapped, tagged, and prepared for Christmas giving.

This year’s Regifting Event will be on Saturday, December 2 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. or until all gifts are gone at the DeKalb County Complex. Families must pre-register their children in order to be eligible for a chance to receive a door prize. Bring your children to the county complex and wait for them to shop. All children who shop will receive a goody bag.

Donations are collected throughout the year for this event so that those who can’t afford to buy gifts can still share in the joy of giving by regifting something.

“We let kids come in and shop for their parents or caregivers. It’s not income based. It’s for anybody. They shop for free, wrap the presents, and fill out the card,” said Kim Walker, who organizes the annual event.

The children are then asked to prepare a blessing bag to be given to others.

This year, children will help assemble Blessing Bags for local veterans.

Walker said the hope is the children take home more than that. “We’re trying to share God’s love with kids to plant a seed so that no matter how old they are they always remember to help somebody else”.

The kids and other volunteers will also decorate a quilt square. “After they decorate the quilt squares we put them together and donate the quilt to somebody who needs a blessing in the community due to a health or life challenging issue,” said Walker. Again, you may contact the event organizers to nominate someone for the quilt.

If you need more information or would like to volunteer call or text Chelsye Madden at 931-247-3369 or Joanna Fuson at 615-517-9100. Please no calls after 5 p.m. You may also call Amber Adams at 615-684-5798 from 6-8 p.m. Email patchworkuc@outlook.com or visit facebook.

October 30, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb Emergency Services Association (DESA), with the help of volunteers, will again be preparing and delivering Thanksgiving Meals to DeKalb County residents on Thursday, November 23.

This year’s meal will consist of turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, roll, and a homemade dessert.

If you or a family member would like a hot meal on Thanksgiving Day, please call one of the numbers listed below or visit the website listed to be added to our delivery list. They will need your address, phone number, and the number of persons in your household. The meals are scheduled to be delivered between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon.

DESA will accept names of persons requesting a meal through Sunday, November 19.

To get your name on the delivery list, call 615-390-0297 or 615-712-4286 or visit www.dekalbesa.com/meal
Additionally, if you want to support this community project by donating or volunteering your time to prepare meals and/or make deliveries, you can contact the phone number above or visit www.dekalbesa.com/help to donate or sign up to volunteer.

The DeKalb Emergency Services Association also plans to prepare and deliver meals on Christmas Eve. A future announcement will be publicized later for this project.

October 30, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

A group of people from the community recently got some first-hand knowledge and experience of what it’s like to be a county volunteer firefighter and to learn more about how the department and supporting agencies operate.

The DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department’s Citizens’ Fall Fire Academy just completed its six-week run with a graduation ceremony for the participants last week.

Chief Donny Green commended FIrefighter Alex Woodward for coordinating and delivering his first session of the Citizens’ Fire Academy. “The purpose of this academy is to provide a behind-the-scenes look, from a citizens’ perspective, at the organizational structure, administration, operation, and response capabilities of the DeKalb County Fire Department and supporting agencies, such as the 911 Dispatch, said Woodward.

Participants had the option of either observing or actually getting some hands-on experience by dressing up in firefighter turnout gear and operating department equipment including the jaws of life extrication tools under the supervision of the county firefighters.

“We are not trying to train people to be firefighters. This is more of an educational type of venture and, while participants have the opportunity to cut up a car using the jaws of life and use a fire hose to spray some water, it’s not a physically demanding program,” said Woodward.

Although the course is not primarily designed to recruit future volunteer firefighters, the department has picked up a few over the years because of the academy. “We have had people go through the program and their level of interest was high enough that they did later apply and become part of our fire department team,” added Chief Green.

Members of this year’s academy were Liberty Mayor Audrey Martin, Bruce Schaffer, Cindy Snow, Connie Cripps, Corey Cripps, Drew Burklow, Ian Chandler, Keith Farler, Kelly Brown, Marshall Farler, Mike Tabor, County Commissioner Sabrina Farler, and Tony Lockhart.

If you would like to know more about how to get on the participant list for next year’s Citizens’ Fire Academy, please contact Alex Woodward at 615-489-7292 or Chief Donny Green at 615-464-7176.

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