Massive crowd shows up for Palmetto Boys & Girls Club Christmas Giveaway

A record-setting crowd estimated to be around 700 crammed into the Palmetto Boys & Girls Club Sunday for the club’s annual Christmas Giveaway of turkeys, toys and Christmas dinner fixings.

“They come, they come, they come. What can I say?” said event organizer D. Bernard Woodie, who, himself, was a bit stunned to see a line stretch from the front door of the club well out into the parking lot at 1:30 p.m., when the event was scheduled to begin.

The club gave away about 500 turkeys with fresh tomatoes, squash, onions, peppers and other vegetables from local farms, including Faulkner and O’Brien Family Farms, along with 1,000 toys and also about a dozen new bicycles via a $2 a ticket raffle, Woodie said.

“This is the most people we have ever had,” Woodie said. “I think having this on a Sunday where they could come right after church made a big difference.” Despite the large crowd, everybody received food, Woodie said.

Her heart was bleeding

Gladys Blue lives on 19th Street East in Bradenton and nearly every day she sees Charlotte Gamble, a single mom, sitting outside at her house nearby. Blue goes over and chats with Gamble, checking on the younger woman, who has a 2-year-old girl named Kenda, a 12-year-old girl named Lamoria Johnson and a 14-year-old boy named Lorenzo Gamble.

“I pass by her house numerous times during the day and I talk to her,” Blue said. “She told me she had nothing for her kids at Christmas. That made my heart bleed. Christmas is all about children. I told this young lady to get ready, and I would bring her and her family over here.”

Blue picked up the Gamble and Johnson family at 11:30 a.m. Sunday and arrived at the Palmetto club at 11:45 a.m. to be first in line.

“It’s a first-come, first-served deal so we wanted to come early,” Blue added.

The family got a turkey and all the trimmings. Lamoria got a Monster High doll, and Lorenzo got a remote-controlled car.

Charlotte Gamble said without the Christmas Giveaway, her children would not have had any gifts at all this year.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do much for my kids this Christmas,” Gamble said.

D. Woodie supports community

D. Bernard Woodie is not known nationally like his brother, Raymond Woodie Jr., an assistant football coach at the University of Oregon. D. Woodie works for Coca-Cola and is a pastor in the community. But you could plainly see that D. Woodie is well-known locally on Sunday as many thanked him as they left the Palmetto Youth Club with their toys and turkey.

Although he doesn’t coach a famous team like the Oregon Ducks, D. Woodie was able to get an impressive group of people to chip in to help provide 500 turkeys and all the rest.

That group includes Bealls Department Stores, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, O’Brien Farms, Faulkner Farms, Keith Wilkins, Coca-Cola, 1-800 Ask Gary, Sarasota Ford, Chumlee’s Wings and Waste Connections, he said.

D. Woodie believes in mentorship, said Angela Johnson, who attended the event as a volunteer along with her daughter, Amari Mitchell, 18, a senior at Palmetto High School.

“I like what he does here every year,” Johnson said. “The toys, the food, the recognition.”

Johnson was referring to a moment just before the Christmas Giveaway begins when Woodie addresses the crowd in the bleachers and recognizes accomplishments. On Sunday, he recognized Amari Mitchell for making the National Honor Society because of her high grades at school.

“He does a good job,” D’s father, Raymond Woodie Sr., said of his son. “I come here just to see how it goes but he does all the work.”

By the way, that more famous Woodie, Raymond Woodie Jr., might be joining the staff of newly named head coach Willie Taggert at Florida State, Raymond Woodie Sr. said Sunday.

“I hope so,” Woodie said of Junior coming to join the Seminoles’ staff. “But he hasn’t committed himself yet.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Massive crowd shows up for Palmetto Boys & Girls Club Christmas Giveaway."