12/15/2025
I shared this with some local publications, as I typically do with my photos. Sometimes my words are included in captions, or snippets, sometimes not. However, this event especially, I wanted to share my experience out loud. I wrote this at 3 am Sat/sun, after culling a few hundred photos down to a several dozen to be edited, and those edited and further streamlined for submission. So it's not my best writing, but it's deeply from my heart. Thank you to for creating/hosting this event and all of the local businesses who donated to support it.
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Well, tonight I stumbled headlong into the most heart-warming community Christmas scene; which was very welcomed since it was only 40 degrees.
I had already been up to Geysers Peak to watch the sunset. Having witnessed one fog stream after another articulate each individual mountain range below, I knew the air below would be of the frigid damp variety. My intention was to do a quick turn through the classic cars (since I had found out about the toy drive through the Rollinâ Rosies) and drop the toys.
As I walked through the entrance of the Abel De Luna Community Center, deliciously savory and spicy smells greeted my nose, raising my suspicions that there was more than just a toy drop-off awaiting me.
A mix of floodlights and twinkle lights drenched the entire back sport courts, which were filled with Christmas table-clothed tables, Poinsettias, and activities, ranging from volunteer led bingo (of sorts), cookie decorating, and face painting. A long line of steaming food tables, I was to find out were offering hot chocolate (courtesy of Black Oak Coffee Roasters), exquisitely seasoned tacos (courtesy of Carnitas Pistache), and Pozole (courtesy of 5 differing vendors whose names I didnât get which smelled frickinâ amazing and my friend said it was-but it was not gluten-free so I could not try it).
I thought I was in the wrong place, had the wrong address, I frantically rechecked the flyer. No address, just Healdsburg Community Center, not even the proper name. My anxiety was ratcheting upward. Then I saw the familiar crowned heart symbol of the non-profit Corazon Healdsburg on a âcheck-inâ table. A passing volunteer, seemingly identified by a fun reindeer headband, directed me to the far end of the courts, where there were toy tables sorted by ages.
The teenage table, 15-17, was the most sparsely filled. I became unexpectedly weepy. I threw up an IG Live-to-Reel post with a pinned location to try and garner some last minute help. Next year, I will be buying for the teenagers. I asked a volunteer about it, and she said it is typically the age group least shopped for, but that they did have gift cards on the way.
There was a row of amazing bicycles, donated by the crematorium, that after selecting their toys, children could drop a raffle ticket in the bag on the bike of their choosing. Moms in attendance were given a âshopping ticketâ for a room that housed new clothes and shoes (I did not get the specifics of how many items they were allowed to select or what-not).
There were also a few very cool classic cars, most notably (because it was the most festively lit) a Chevy Bel Air (I am terrible with years and it was very dark). Difficult, but fun to photograph.
I took event pictures trying to only have volunteers in focus or recognizable, out of respect for familyâs privacy.
I once was a kid without a home, part of a family in need, escaping domestic violence before it readily had a name. In a time before most shelters housed women with male children, in a time where family repeatedly encouraged a teenager-turned-wife into a very young mother âtrapped with 3 kidsâ to be a âbetter wifeâ and âgo home,â we were forced to floor, sofa, hay barn, and finally Airstream âsurfâ until my mom achieved stability.
We needed this sort of community and did not have it.
Many of the people in attendance were obviously in fully in-tact happy families, and just in need of a little help. No one wants to feel less than, or less able to provide for their own,-no matter the reason (and there are so many right now), so I did not want to intrude with my lens.
Corazon Healdsburg creates so much good in our community; it was amazing to see all these local business turnout to support them in their goal to brighten everyoneâs holidays. Although I could not show it in photos, hundreds of little kidsâ (and adultsâ too) smiles added to the lights.
