What evolved into Tracy Keagle’s Santa Toy Shop began years ago when she baked cookies a few days before Christmas to give away.
Husband Willie wasn’t too keen on helping with the project, but he’s a part of the story about what Keagle’s done for a good many Iolans.
“Each year with the cookies, my husband complained about having to go along,” Keagle told Iola Rotarians Thursday. “After the first house, he was ready to go, though.”
The same reaction occurred a few years later when Keagle decided to collect toys and give them to kids whose family circumstances meant few presents under the tree, if there were a tree.
“The first house we went to had broken windows, the porch was rotting away and the front door hung at an angle,” Keagle recalled. “Willie went to the door. He knocked; no one came. He knocked again and started to leave when three little kids opened the door.”
He stayed a while and played with the kids. When he returned to the car, it was easy to see he was emotionally drained. “He said, ‘I have to drive.’” A short time later Willie stopped, learned over the steering wheel and burst into tears. Between tears, “He told me, ‘Those three little boys had nothing, nothing at all.’”
The toy delivery went on, and took 14 hours to visit 100 homes.
“We got home, where it was clean, safe and we had food,” Keagle recalled. “We sat around a table for a long time and didn’t say a thing, just thought how lucky we and our six kids were.
“I’ve never been the same after that” — nor has Iola.
Keagle’s Santa Toy Shop will distribute 4,500 toys this year at 7 E. Madison, a vacant building on the south side of the square that will come alive with feverish activity when the toys are put on display, and more so when kids descend on the toy wonderland.
The toy giveaway is one way Keagle has encouraged Iolans to help and feel as she does, that giving truly is greater than receiving.
Toys are collected in a number of ways, including people dropping them off at “that old woman’s house on East Madison,” 410 to be exact. Some are new, some are old. Those repairable are repaired — with Willie lending an enthusiastic hand.
Keagle has other outlets for her benevolence, one that seems daily to find a new avenue for expression.
She put up elevated boxes containing books in several places this year for people whose minds are hungry for adventure and knowledge. Just south of the courthouse is a Blessing Box that contains non-perishable food free for the taking.
“I fill the Blessing Box every day,” Keagle said. By day’s end it is empty. Donations made to an obvious container at the exit to Walmart and others keep enough food on hand. And, food will be there every day, Keagle explained to a woman one day when she started to leave with all available. “She put some back.”
