Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Dec. 10, 2024 – Jordan’s Kwik Stop donated over 2,600 toys statewide to the Arkansas Department of Human Services for foster children in need for Christmas.
“This was across all of our stores,” said Jordan’s director of operations Buddie Hardcastle. “We collected over 2,600, which is great because last year we did 1,500.”
Jordan’s has 70 stores across Arkansas and one Mississippi location.
Beginning in 2019, this is the fifth year for the business to collect and donate toys at Christmas time.
“The whole month of November, they set up and decorate a box to put it up in the stores and we ask every single customer,” she explained, noting how Jonesboro Radio Group general sales manager Christie Matthews, always puts their toy drive on the radio for every year.
“The first two years, somebody actually contacted us from the DHS office to do it and we haven’t heard anything from any of them in the last three years, but we continue to do it,” Hardcastle said. “We were like ‘We’re still going to do it, and we’ll just take them up there.’”
Although the DHS picked them up for those first two years, she said now each store takes the toys it collects to its local DHS office.
Additionally, some people choose to donate money, so store managers buy more toys with monetary donations.
After the event is over, Hardcastle said whichever store collects the most gets something special, including a gift for the manager and a party at the store. This year’s winner was Store No. 52, Jordan’s Travel Center in Pocahontas, which collected 278 toys under manager Paxton Hamilton.