Walker Valley High School choir provided the singing Friday as the Empty Stocking Fund’s final appeal for the year ended at Life Care Centers of America. The fund, started 40 years ago, is throwing a party for needy children next Saturday and will give them new toys bought with the funds.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Despite economic hard times and a year of tornadoes and floods, two major Christmas giving campaigns here set records Friday.
The Empty Stocking Fund ended a 10-day radio broadcast appeal with $39,571 in cash and pledges, officials said. The goal had been to beat last year’s $34,000 by a dollar.
“You did a little better than a dollar,” Steve Hartline, owner of WCLE-FM Mix 104.1, told the radio audience.
That number is expected to go higher because some businesses will continue their pledge drives through next week.
The entire amount goes to buy toys for about 1,000 of the area’s neediest children. Their Christmas party is Dec. 18 at George R. Stuart Elementary School.