Local IW Community Raises $75K In Toy Drive

Some people don’t just organize events... they ignite people. That’s exactly what Christal did in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Over the course of eight weeks, what started as a simple idea turned into an incredible community-wide toy drive built on her energy, enthusiasm, and ability to bring people together around a shared purpose.

Christal has a real gift for building local teams, and this drive was a perfect example of that. She rallied veterans, volunteers, and especially an incredible group of volunteer women who showed up week after week because they believed in the mission. These weren’t people checking a box, they were invested, motivated, and proud to support kids in their own community. That kind of sustained effort doesn’t happen without strong leadership and genuine connection. A huge part of the success came from Christal’s work with local partners, including multiple Dollar Tree locations across the area. Through trust, consistency, and great relationships, she helped turn those partnerships into a steady and growing stream of donations. As momentum increased, the operation scaled naturally, with more frequent collections and even additional stores joining in.

The Jacksonville community met that effort with overwhelming generosity. Families and everyday shoppers stepped up in a big way, filling bins again and again. By the end of the eight weeks, the drive had collected approximately 14,000 toys, representing an estimated $75,000 worth of donated toys going directly back into the community. Those numbers aren’t just impressive, they reflect thousands of individual moments of kindness from people who wanted to help.

At the center of it all were the kids. Every toy collected meant a smile, a moment of excitement, and a reminder that their community sees them and cares. The joy created by this drive will last far beyond the eight weeks it took to build it, showing up in living rooms, family gatherings, and memories that kids will carry with them.

Christal and her team didn’t just run a toy drive... they built something meaningful. Veterans, volunteer women, local partners, and the Jacksonville community came together to prove what’s possible when passion meets purpose. Fourteen thousand toys, seventy-five thousand dollars in generosity, eight weeks of hard work, and countless smiles to show for it!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Irreverent Warriors!