Happy Christmas Shopping

I had the privilege of taking part in a "Happy" tradition this week. For decades, George "Happy" Irby, a Columbus Club employee, saved his tips to buy gifts for underprivileged kids and needy families in town. When others caught wind of it, he began to receive donations for his fund, and a community-wide charity effort was born. By the time of his death at age 94, the Happy Christmas Fund was supplying over 400 gifts each Christmas. Members of Happy's family partner with Columbus Air Force Base employees and volunteers each year to purchase, wrap, and deliver clothing items to children in need.


When I heard about the effort, I approached my children with the notion of giving up a couple hours of sleep to get to Wal-Mart in time for the 6 a.m. meeting to kick off the shopping spree. They were in! When the appointed day arrived, we all got up, dressed, and headed out the door. After a brief instructional meeting, we set about the task of shopping for nearly 400 children. We were given slips of paper, each with a child's name, gender, and clothing size(s). We picked out socks and underwear and then used the remaining funds (up to $40 per child) to purchase pants and tops. My girls turned out to be super shoppers, and we quickly lost track of how many girls and boys we shopped for. We estimate that the 4 of us took care of shopping for 60-70 of the children on the list.

Within 3-4 hours, all of the slips of paper representing real children with real needs had been processed. Nearly $15,000 had been spent on clothing items. Our feet were hurting, our tummies were hungry, but our hearts were full of blessing for having been used by God to be just one small part of the blessing that is the Happy Christmas Fund: one man, with one vision, undaunted by circumstances, reaching out for over 5 decades to hundreds and thousands of needy children and families. Happy Irby left a legacy of selflessness and sharing so strong that his vision carries on, even after his death.