By Evalin Hester
Tim Allen and his dog Rosy, met with Nikki Deal and her team: “DeQuincy Community Christmas” at the Heritage Place Hotel on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Mr. Allen is a home town guy. He is one of our own home town heroes to help save the day.
Allen met with the DeQuincy Community Christmas board to donate $10,000. After carefully listening to the talk they gave about their organization and how many children that they help he decided to increase his donation to $20,000.
This organization is being the hands and feet of Jesus. What a blessing this is for all the children of need in our community. The organization will purchase shoes, coats, sets of clothing, bedding toothbrushes, toys, etc. No electronics are purchased. They help the Autistic and unsponsered children. They will be able to meet the children’s needs with a sizeable donation like this.
Allen said, he was donating this money in honor of Major Jerry Bell. He also stated that Major Bell was a big deal to him. All the kids in town looked up to him, he always took time to talk to all of the kids. He just made time for all of them. He was our neighborhood policeman. The last time Allen saw Major Bell was about 40 plus years ago. He stopped me by the old Douglas Hospital and asked me how I was doing.
Allen said, he had a pack of cookies and Bell said he had not had lunch and he was hungry would I share my cookies. Allen gave Bell his cookies. Bell stated that this might me the last time he would be seeing him since he would be going to VietNam. As a young kid, this statement really scared me, and it stayed with me. I couldn’t imgine going to a place so far away. In the mean time, Bell had eaten all my cookies. “Jerry if you reading this, I want my cookies back,” Allen stated with a grin.
Allen stated, it says a lot about our town and the people that live here. “Mr. Jerry” could live anywhere in the world but he chooses to live in our small town, DeQuincy.
May this donation help the children in this town to have a blessed and wonderful Christmas. May God bless these ladies as they use this donation wisely.