NEOSHO, Mo. — It is unusual this time of year to have to look for the cash register in a store.
It is even more unlikely to discover the cash register hidden behind more than 100 brightly wrapped presents and gift sacks, but that was exactly the situation last week inside Stickers-N-Stuff, a scrapbook store in Neosho.
The gifts were all donations for Newton and McDonald county foster children. Each present was topped with a pink slip listing the recipient’s first name and age. Customers of the store had been shopping and wrapping for the past two months, since selecting a name at a monthly scrapbooking workshop, referred to as a “crop,” on Oct. 6.
“Every crop, we pick a charity to feature,” said Clione Hatfield, one of the store’s co-owners. “So in October I called Family Services and asked if they might be interested. They were quick to say ‘yes’ and that they would get us a list of what each child would like.”
Hatfield, along with the other store owners, her daughter, Kristy Senter, and granddaughter, McKenna Morgan, decorated a small Christmas tree with a pink angel on top and covered in slips of paper, each with the first name, age and a detailed list of the foster child’s Christmas wishes.
“We called it our angel tree,” Hatfield said. “Although now it’s hard to tell who the angel really is — the kids who we shopped for, or our friends and customers who just couldn’t stop giving; maybe both.”
The children’s ages and their related gift requests ranged from the youngest, a newborn with a request for clothes, to the oldest of 19 who will soon be setting out on her own and asked for items for her first apartment. Other popular requests included clothes, hand-held electronic games and MP3 players.
“Most of our friends haven't just taken one name, but have taken at least a couple,” Hatfield said. “One customer even wound up shopping for seven children. She was just having too much fun picking out and wrapping the different gifts.
Many customers have used the Stickers-N-Stuff angel tree as a teaching moment on compassion for their own families, selecting a slip that lists a child close to the same age as their own, then enlisting their children to help in the shopping and wrapping of each item.
The gifts, picked up by workers with a local division office of the state Department of Social Services, are set for distribution at the annual Christmas party held for local foster children each year.
“The response has been so much better than I thought it would be,” Hatfield said. “It has made our Christmas — this feeling of sharing. It really makes you think more about what the Christmas spirit is all about.”
