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The Thumb Area Mud Runners is a four wheel drive club located in the “Thumb” of Michigan.  We sponsor events for the purpose of funding our featured project, Tuscola County Christmas for Kids.  In the early 80’s the members wanted to start a toy drive project, so they partnered with Toys for Tots.  The Mud Runners worked hard to put on events for this charity and others.  The annual Toys for Tots Benefit was an event that served this cause.

In the 90’s the members voted to change the name of the toy project to Tuscola County Christmas for Kids.  With the assistance of the county Department of Social Services the project increased in popularity. Tuscola County Christmas for Kids is synonymous with Thumb Area Mud Runners and  they  still host events including the annual Christmas for Kids Benefit where money is made specifically for providing toys to needy families in Tuscola County.

We have recently started to work with Mayville Area Share Shop who will provide as many food boxes as their organization can afford.  Tuscola County DHHS will be helping us again this year by mailing out the applications.

The future of the  program is strong and we look forward to many years to come helping the needy in our community.

 

 

When my husband and I joined the Thumb Area Mud Runners I never dreamed that I would have had the experiences that I have had over the years.  I started delivering toys when the Mud Runners were doing Toys for Tots. A few years went by and soon my husband and I found ourselves Tuscola County Christmas for Kids Chairmen.  We have been in that position since the early 90’s.  Now I not only find myself as chair, but blogger who would have saw that one coming especially way back in the 90’s.  Things are quite different since we started this journey.  I guess that is the natural progression of things.

I remember one year sitting in the hospital waiting room coloring the copied flyers. Now we print them up on the computer and print in full color.  If it wasn’t for computers this year who knows what have been.

I started thinking about using this section to express the blessings that my family and I have had by doing this project over the years.  Sometimes I think I should write a book and call it My Life as a Christmas Elf, but I’m not one that likes to boast about things.  I am also just one person in a much larger organization that deserves a lot of praise.  The Mud Runners spend days in the sweltering heat of summer hustling hot dogs and sloppy joes out of a trailer, getting covered in mud up to their knees just to make money for this project.  So I would say I have been blessed by not only the people who receive, but the people who work with it.  I love you Mud Runner family!

The party is over for this year and now it is time to start packing.  Some of the packing has already been done.  The bags for the Mayville Area Share Shop are finished and ready to be delivered to be put with the food baskets.  The Mayville Area Share Shop committed to doing 300 food baskets and because of the unusual year they are covering most of the areas of the county.  Our thanks to Mayville Share Shop.

 

The toys have been put away for another year.  I’m not sure what next year will bring. I have hopes that 2017 will be easier.  It’s funny how every year yields itself to different challenges and feelings. This is going to be a year I will never forget.  I met some really great people who have just been dealt a bad hand. I met proud people who would only take just what they needed.  I met people who would not have had Christmas if not for the help. People who have lost loved ones during the year and just wanted to feel something other than pain.  I hope they all know as I sit here tonight that they are being thought about at this very minute.  I will remember tonight to pray for all those families.

The author of this blog has many favorite Christmas memories.  One of my favorite Christmas memories was when my entire family aunt, uncles and cousins came to our house for Christmas dinner.  Grandma always had dinner at  1:00 PM. Our house was set up so that the entire family could have dinner together in the dining room and unwrap presents in the living room. The kids all went into the front porch room and the adults went to the basement where my dad had the fire going in the wood stove and cold beer available.  It snowed that year so Dad piled the snow against the basement window and when you needed a cold drink you just had to open the window.  I guess you could call it the window cooler.  My grandmother beamed with the idea that her whole family were there.  It was a a God send that we were all there that year, because in February my grandmother lost the first of her sons.  I will never forget the last Christmas with my Uncle Ron.

Of course as time rolls on we have had many losses in my family and Christmas was really never the same after that year.  In spite of the losses we continue to get together and celebrate the birth of Our Lord, Jesus.