Facebook and social media often get blamed for the negatives of the world. People complain about society or scream about politics, and yet, in times of tragedy, a simple Facebook post can bring people together.
That’s exactly what happened with two posts that drew Mayfield and western Kentucky together in the days after an EF-4 tornado roared through Mayfield, eventually churned through Marshall County, on past the lakes, and into Dawson Springs before ending in Breckenridge County. The tornado was on the ground for nearly 166 miles in Kentucky.
Christmas in Mayfield
Sarah Farmer drove from Paducah to her hometown of Mayfield and began volunteering the next morning, but after three days of volunteering and helping to feed people, she felt mentally drained and guilty.
“I was like, you know, I’m sitting here and saying that it’s draining me, and I can’t imagine what these people are feeling right now,” she said. “And so, I came home and I was like ‘You know what, there’s so many food trucks in Mayfield. I should try to get some food trucks together.’”
People had been getting food at the trucks, but they were taking the food back to their shelters. Farmer had a thought that it would be nice for the community to come together for fellowship in a time of great tragedy.
That one thought left her head and found her hands on the keyboard for a Facebook post. Suddenly, people she didn’t know started contacting her to volunteer their services. She asked a friend who had a wedding planning business for help with tables, chairs, and string lights. She asked someone to play Santa. Ryan and Joelle Long at Texas Roadhouse in Paducah contacted her to ask if they could help.
“It was just a very small vision that I had,” she recalled.
As word spread on social media, people began contacting her to volunteer and bring trucks with toys and supplies from as far away as Texas and as close as Lexington.
“It just turned out huge,” she said. “I felt so much joy just seeing people sit around” and eat and fellowship.
Children who hadn’t seen their friends since the tornado tore through town played. Teenagers gathered to talk instead of text their friends. Adults sat with friends and strangers to fellowship.
“I wanted these kids and teenagers to just smile, and that’s what I saw,” Farmer said. “I was holding mothers in my arms as if they were crying kids. I mean, it was very emotional. But it was a blessing. I mean, I saw kids smiling and not thinking about what had just happened for just a few hours.”
And for a few hours on Dec. 21, Christmas in Mayfield provided hope, light, and love to a community in need of a Christmas miracle. Christmas wasn’t about the toys or the trimmings; it was about the heart that Farmer and her friends felt for the community, and it showed.
Farmer said Mayfield isn’t just a town. “I’m still friends with (classmates) on Facebook, and I still see them on Friday nights at football games. And you just don’t really lose that friendship you have with people growing up,” she said. “We are a family. I mean, there is no black and white. It’s a family, and that’s how it really is.”
Farmer said she hopes Christmas in Mayfield can become an annual event.
Toys from Texas
In today’s ultra-connected online world, an online article can reach readers far away. That’s exactly how Tracy and Amber Travers of Quinlan, Texas, found their way to western Kentucky with a 20-foot trailer stuffed with toys. The Traverses run the Hunt County Tunes for Tots charity that has provided toys for needy children in their region of Texas as well as scholarships, food drives, and donations.
As Tracy Travers crawled into bed after another successful Hunt County Tunes for Tots Toy Drive that netted 5,636 toys, he thought about the horrifying images from Mayfield on a news report and knew that they had to do something to help children have a brighter Christmas amid all the devastation.
They began searching online to find information about how to help, specifically for a toy drive. Their search led them to the December VUE magazine article about Scottie Anderson, Malcom James, and their ping-pong tournament and toy drive that benefitted Toys for Tots. Anderson and James had turned their lives around at Lifeline Recovery Center and had begun working with and ministering to other former addicts.
The story touched their hearts, and they contacted Anderson and James, both of whom had already started volunteering with tornado relief efforts after the storms. About 20 people had contacted the duo about helping, but not one person followed through until the Traverses.
“I am huge about second chances,” Tracy Travers said.
The next morning, Tracy and Amber went to their local Wal-Mart and bought toys – 2,500 toys worth an estimated $15,000 – and loaded up their 20-foot trailer. They barely knew where Mayfield was, yet the need tugged hard at them. They contacted Anderson and James to let them know they were coming, recorded a video of them loading up and heading out of Texas, and arrived in western Kentucky two days later.
“And so, they told us, ‘Listen, we’ve got $15,000 worth of toys, and we’re going to bring them to you,’” Anderson recalled. “Well, of course, I thought it was too good to be true… I’m like, ‘Hey, dude, I think this dude’s for real, and we’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do.’”
Anderson and James contacted their pastor, Kevin Gaunce, at Grace Fellowship Church in Paducah and filled him in. They’re still dumbfounded at this point that two strangers from Texas have loaded up a trailer with toys, all because they read about them in a magazine.
And then reality hit. With $15,000 worth of toys on the way, Anderson and James, who a year ago were sitting in a local jail cell after numerous drug charges, had to quickly organize something that was as big as the state of Texas. They needed volunteers, so they asked Lifeline Recovery Center if some of the men and women in recovery could help with unloading and organizing toys at Grace Fellowship Church.
The Traverses, veterans of large-scale fundraisers, offered advice and help. “We ended up staying until the last one was gone,” he said.
By the end of the drive (Dec. 20-21), the Traverses, Anderson, and James had distributed $15,000 worth of toys to 300 children and spread Christmas joy in a season that had been marred by a whirling path of destruction.
“People were crying and thanking us for what we were doing,” Anderson said. “And we had to keep telling them that we didn’t do any of this. The Traverses are there, and I’m like these people drove from Texas to give us these toys. People are hearing the story as they come through, and people just have their mind blown that this is happening. And throughout the day, we continue to love on these people. And they didn’t just come to get toys. We listened to their stories.”
Anderson and James, who laughingly admit that they’re a bit much to take due to their larger-than-life personalities, asked families to pose for selfies with them and accept hugs. Families that weren’t affected by the tornado came to help Anderson and James minister to the storm victims and provide them with support. “Like how awesome is that,” James said.
And to think that all of this started as social media posts about a magazine article and grew into a toy drive. James said he estimated that they added 15 new people on Facebook that day.
“Facebook can be used for good, and it’s not always bad,” he said. “We can post something, and now it’s people that just barely know us from the toy drive, on our post, liking it and giving us encouraging words.”
Travers posted about their trip on his Facebook account throughout the weekend. Once they returned to Texas, he said people asked him about how he connected with two former drug addicts who had turned their lives around. An easy-going Texan, Travers replied that it was the “perfect thing” to do to help.
“Not once did I think that we had made the wrong decision,” he said. “Once we left our house, we knew it was the right decision. And there was no turning back.”
Anderson and James now plan to repay Travers’ kindness by taking donations to Texas next year.
“A married couple from the other side of the country comes here, and they’re just amazing people who follow their heart,” Anderson said. “And we do the same. We came together not only as friends but as people in the community who genuinely cared about trying to help other people. Because that’s what keeps us sober, it’s stuff like this that drives us to be the best human beings that we could possibly be.”
