Filling a Christmas Need
Davis and family donate food, clothing and toys to 72 needy area kids
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson Finding a Christmas need and filling it, the Davis family, from left, Jennifer, T.J. Stone, Colton and C.A. Davis shows off the bicycles stuffed in the back of their SUV for delivery. The family filled Christmas wishes for clothing, food and toys for almost 100 children, including around 70 from Wharton, ranging in age from 4 to 17, this holiday season. The family decided to make a number of local wishes come true despite living in the area for only two weeks.

For C.A. Davis and family, giving just seems to come naturally during the holidays because of a tendency to see a need and fill it.

Davis has been a Wharton resident for only about two weeks, having moved his family from Sealy for a variety of reasons, the main one being that he thought his son Colton Davis would have better long range prospects attending Wharton schools.

It was a visit to Colton's school, Sivells Elementary, that prompted Davis to give to the less fortunate residents of his new community.

Over a two-day period just before Christmas, Davis, along with his wife, Jennifer, and his sons donated clothing, food and toys to 72 children living in the area who might have otherwise gone without a Christmas.

He made the local donations in addition to giving similar gifts to 20 children and their families from Sealy, a private program he started several years ago.

"We were at the water department to talk about putting in a new culvert," he said.

"My wife saw a donation box for the Women's Shelter and decided she wanted to make a contribution to it.

"But we couldn't track down anyone who could tell us about the shelter but she insisted we had to do something so we called the school."

Davis said he talked to Sivells Assistant Principal Ethel Garrett and got the names of three or four families representing six or seven children in need. Davis said he'd see what he could do and that if they knew of other families in need to contact him. Sivells Nurse Nancy Ondrias contacted him with an additional 20 names and things grew from there.

In discussing his giving, Davis said he likes having a personal touch and tries to arrange to meet with each of the recipients so he can get clothing sizes and gift ideas.

He then purchases clothing, including enough shirts, pants, underwear and socks for a couple of changes, along with a toy requested.

The makings for a Christmas dinner, including a turkey with dressing and other side dishes, is then added to the package. He estimated he spends between $300 and $600 on each family he deals with depending on the number of children.

"I like to see the faces of the children when they get the gifts," he said. "A lot of the other donation programs will give a gift based on the child being a boy or a girl, but it isn't always what they want. I want to see them get the something they asked for."

This year one family had a daughter who wanted a particular kind of doll while there were three brothers who wanted an electronic game.

"I try to budget about the same for each child," he said. "So for the brothers instead of giving them individual electronic games, I bought them a full game system with a couple of games they can share."

One of the final families added to his list was a grandmother who only days before was given the care of her grandchildren as an alternative to foster care.

The grandmother's plight of trying to provide an unexpected Christmas for the children touched his heart more than most.

Among the original gifts he gave was a bicycle for the older of the two, thinking the younger child couldn't ride. But the child insisted so Davis went out, picked up a second bike, and delivered it on Christmas Eve Day.

To indulge his desire to give gifts to an unexpected number of families this year, Davis said he took out a loan on a piece of equipment from his dirt hauling business, Davis Dirt.

As a child, Davis said he grew up with little more than a roof over his head and food on the table.

"I grew up with a single mother who did the best she could for her three children," he said. "She was a milk lady, but that was 45 years ago when businesses didn't pay women much. At age 10, I was already mowing lawns to help make ends meet. We got the occasional toy and we were grateful for them. Once we had both a red wagon and a tricycle and we thought we were on top of the world. I decided at an early age that my own kids would never do without."

Another motivation for Davis is his faith, saying that he sees helping others as his Christian duty even if he doesn't associate with any formal church congregations or organization.

"I don't go to church," he says flatly. "I don't believe in the commercialism of Christianity or Christ's message. People give money to the church to give to others, but I want to see where money is going. I want to know the people it is helping."

In addition to growing up poor, Davis also lost virtually everything he owned, his former business, home and a ranch, when he suffered a heart attack.

"I thought I had an honest person running the company and it turned out I was wrong," he said.

"But I survived and we've rebuilt our lives. We could have used the money we spent this Christmas on renovating the home we've bought, but my wife wouldn't let me. She wanted to do something for the community."

And while he went all out this year, Davis understands that he'll need help if he wants to continue to be as generous in the future. He added he's willing to work with individuals, business and, yes, even churches to match or expand his efforts next year.

"I'd like to set up a program I'm thinking of calling 'Christmas of Angels,'" he said.

"I know we didn't get to all the families in need this year and more can be done. I understand that in a lot of these families the mother or father has made some mistakes and that is why they are in the situation they are in. But this is about the kids.

"You can't hold what their parents have done against them. And I'm not about judging the parents but just taking care of the innocent children of God."