Holiday Crawl a success, donations still needed

Organizers of the annual Holiday Crawl estimate they made about $10,000 for the Holiday with a Hero shopping spree that benefits children in need in the community.

“I think it went extremely well,” said Meliah Gonzales, a Carson City Courthouse bailiff who serves on the committee. “We had more people attend than last year. The raffle was successful, and we gave away 25 prizes donated by local businesses.”

The goal is to raise $25,000 by Dec. 21, when children are paired with cops, firefighters, servicemen or other volunteers to spend $100 on Christmas gifts at Walmart

“Do we want to raise $25,000? Yeah, we do,” Gonzales said. “But any amount we make is a success.”

Gonzales said they are looking to shop with about 200 children, who come in from the Carson City School District’s McKinney-Vento Students in Transition program, which serves children who live in motels, cars, campgrounds, grandparents or double up with other families.

“Every kid needs to be loved as much as possible, especially during the holiday season,” Gonzales said. “A lot of these families are trying to make progress — we should help them out. Even the families that aren’t doing much to help their situations, we shouldn’t hold it against the children. My sole message is to offer kindness and love to anyone in need.”

She said the second crawl, which featured food and drink specials along with live music and a costume contest, will become an annual event to be held on the first weekend of every December.

“It’s a successful fundraiser, and it’s a positive way to get people out and supporting businesses downtown,” Gonzales said. “We’ll keep ironing out the bumps we need to along the way.”

She said the committee still needs tape, bags, boxes and tags for wrapping the gifts. She said she, her husband, Sgt. Daniel Gonzales and Carson City Fire Capt. Jason Danen organize the events, but rely on an army of volunteers to get it off the ground.

“Without these people, we would be dead in the water,” she said. She also credits the community for the ongoing success of Holiday with a Hero.

“How could kindness fail?” she asked. “Kindness will never fail.”