Days before Christmas, at least 400 local families received a reminder that someone else cares that they have a happy holiday.
The civic organization A Better Glynn partnered Tuesday with the advocacy group Black Voters Matter and numerous other organizations to host a “Winter Wonderland” event at the Rise Risley campus in Brunswick. The event included a food and toy distribution as well as voter education about the runoff election for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats.
Cars lined up for the drive-thru event early and were greeted by around 40 volunteers, holiday music, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Santa Claus.
Bags of food, which included ham and fresh vegetables, were placed in each car along with a toy and book for every child in the family. Masks and voting information were also provided to everyone.
“This is to give families some inspiration during the holidays, because it’s been a rough year with the pandemic,” said Kendra Rolle, co-founder of A Better Glynn. “It gives kids the opportunity to get free toys, to get free books, and just for us to come together and continue to encourage voting.”
Other partners at the event included the Lambda Tau chapter of Omega Psi Phi, an intercollegiate, international historically African American Greek-letter fraternity, Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority and the 2:23 Foundation, a group bringing awareness to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Black Voters Matter is a Georgia-based organization working in 15 states to increase voter registration and turnout, and the event was part of their “12 Days of Christmas” campaign throughout the state. The group has hosted similar events in other parts of the state this month, said Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director.
“But more important than the election is our folks,” Albright said. “Our communities have been going through a hard time the entire year — COVID, police violence, all of that. You all here in Brunswick know that better than any place else. And so part of why we’re doing this is just to say thank you … and to give some support for the holidays.”
Black Voters Matters donated the toys and food, and the organization partnered with Black farmers for the fresh produce. The partnership helps address both the food insecurity that many face and Black-owned businesses that have struggled during the pandemic, Albright said.
“We want families to have a happy holiday,” he said. “There are families who are struggling to put holiday meals on the table. They’re struggling to get toys for the kids. We wanted to be able to provide some joy.”
The organization promoted the event through social media and other messaging, Albright said, and asked local partners to secure a location for the distribution.
“We’re just glad to be able to provide this,” he said. “It’s about all of us working together. We want the folks of Brunswick and Glynn County to know that they are not alone with any of these issues that they’re dealing with.”
Black Voters Matter aims to raise awareness of voting opportunities and encourage local voters to make their voices heard, he said. And before the distribution, Albright said his group members spent a couple of hours outside the Glynn County Courthouse protesting what he called voting suppression efforts to remove voters from local registration records.
“We spoke out against that, and we were successful in that, so those voters won’t be purged,” he said.
Rolle said the voter promotion efforts during the distribution were a key part of the event’s goal to support community members.
“We are giving Black people the opportunity to know that we have power, because in this city of Brunswick people are not really pumped up to vote as they should be because they think that there’s not going to be any change,” she said. “That’s why we’re saying, ‘Hey y’all look, let’s get it done. We can do this. Get out and vote.’”
