Volunteers teamed up at Golden Lion Stadium to help others meet everyday basic needs Wednesday.
Kentucky-based Christian Appalachian Project brought its Operation Sharing team to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s football stadium for a drive-thru distribution community giveaway of toys and essentials.
New St. Hurricane Missionary Baptist Church partnered with CAP and other churches for the 5-hour event, as two lines of cars drove through the University Drive entrance for their boxes of goods and words of prayer.
“We’re grateful for those pastors in other churches and community organizations to help make this day happen,” New St. Hurricane Pastor Derick Easter said.
Easter and his wife, Keely, have been working with Operation Sharing manager Ben Ridner in recent years for drives such as this.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Ridner said Operation Sharing partners with Toys for Tots for distribution of toys for ages 0-18. Other items given away included Gatorade, water, Pine Sol cleaner, Clorox sanitizing spray and sunscreen.
“We’re just here to hopefully put some smiles on some kids’ faces,” Ridner said. “Each family today is going to get right at $300 dollars’ worth of product.”
The goal was to serve 1,000 families, Easter said.
Operation Sharing started 38 years ago with a book distribution from a tobacco warehouse in Somerset, Ky., Ridner said. The organization partners with New St. Hurricane’s Hurricane Outreach Distribution Center.
“Our partnership has been great through the years,” Easter said. “We wanted to do something large in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County to address some of the need here. As we continued to talk with Operation Sharing, this outreach today is the product of these conversations.”
Volunteers help distribute products to those in need at a giveaway outside Golden Lion Stadium on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)