Posted on December 13, 2024

By the El Dorado News-Times

Meet Me at the Court is keeping busy this holiday season with activities that are intended to help bring comfort and joy to the community.

Veronica Bailey, president and CEO of MMC — a nonprofit community service organization –, said there have been some changes to MMC’s 2024 schedule of holiday events.

Bailey said the group hopes to begin delivering gifts this week to participants in Sharion’s Angel Tree project.

The deliveries were supposed to have begun Dec. 20 but due to the volume of submissions the group has received, Bailey said MMC members wanted to get an earlier start this year to deliver as many gifts as they can to area families by Christmas.

The deadline for Angel Tree submissions was Dec. 4.

Bailey said MMC accepted a few submissions past the deadline but the group is no longer taking Angel Tree submissions.

Local families were invited to submit names and other information for their children to receive Christmas gifts as a part of MMC’s Angel Tree project.

“We had 181 requests to come in and we’re picking up items right now for the Angel Tree project,” Bailey said.

Each year, some Angel Tree deliveries extend beyond Dec. 25, she added.

“We always have some that we deliver after Christmas and the families don’t mind. With so many requests this year, we want to have presents wrapped and get them delivered so the parents can have the under the tree for their children on Christmas Day,” explained Bailey.

She noted that Angel Tree presents will include gift cards, all of which will be hand-delivered this year. Previously, gift cards were largely mailed to recipients.

“We’re not mailing any of the gift cards this year. We’re just going to pass them out by hand, along with canned goods,” Bailey said.

MMC youth members have added another component to their list of holiday activities.

As a part of the group’s Lunch On Us (LOU) project, an ongoing effort to provide food and other essentials to less fortunate members of the community, MMC youth will hit the streets at noon Dec. 21 with Warm Hearts.

Warm Hearts is a program in which the group will distribute blankets, lap throws and meals with homemade beef and vegetable soup, cornbread, fried chicken and hot chocolate.

“We’ll just be riding through the city and wherever we see people, that’s where we’ll stop and start passing out the homemade soup, cornbread and fried chicken,” Bailey said.

MMC’s third annual Secret Santa giveaway also got underway last week.

MMC has tipped local restaurant workers and this week, the group will begin offers to pay for gasoline and groceries for customers at local gas pumps and in grocery stores.

“Remember, we will approach you, tell you who we are and let you know that we are doing our Secret Santa,” Bailey said.

MMS also plans to donate cash to local churches as a part of the Secret Santa giveaway.

On Dec. 24, MMC will head to Bradley Woods Apartments for Christmas on the Court 2024.

The event will include a day’s worth of activities with a visit from Santa, a food giveaway with hams, turkeys, rotisserie and whole fryer chickens, canned goods and fresh vegetables.

Children in the apartment complex will receive toys and some will take home bicycles, said Bailey.

The event is open only to current residents of Bradley Woods.

For more information about MMC, call Bailey at 870-310-0391. Cash donations for the nonprofit may be mailed to P.O. Box 10594, El Dorado, Arkansas, 71730.