Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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| Tultex plus 10 |
Chip Wyatt (left), who was working with Christmas Cheer in 1999, and then-Lt. Erik Nickell of the Salvation Army stood at a collection box outside the “A Community Christmas” building in Collinsville during a toy drive in December 1999. Local organizations worked together to provide food and toys to the families of displaced workers that Christmas. |
Monday, December 7, 2009
By ELIZA WINSTON - Bulletin Staff Writer
In December 1999, hundreds of displaced textile workers looked to local agencies to help them provide Christmas for their families. A decade later, those agencies still are providing assistance to people affected by factory closings and job layoffs.
Local organizations that helped the community in 1999, such as the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots and Christmas Cheer, are still at work today. Due to the current recession, some officials with the charities said the need in the area is greater than ever.
When 1,130 Tultex employees lost their jobs just three weeks before Christmas, Capt. Erik Nickell, who at that time headed the Salvation Army in Martinsville, helped organize the Community Christmas project. The project was spearheaded by the Salvation Army and Christmas Cheer, and through it, toys and food were collected and distributed to more than 2,000 children and families of laid-off textile workers.
Looking back, Nickell marveled at the community’s ability to provide a Christmas for all of the displaced workers and their families.
“When we first heard about the layoffs, there were only 500 children who needed toys,” Nickell recalled. “But throughout that December, the number just exploded.”
Since leaving Martinsville, Nickell has worked at Salvation Armies across the country, but nothing was quite like being in Martinsville after Tultex closed, he said.
“It seemed like everything just kind of died, and nothing looked the same after,” he said.
Major Orville Chambless, who now works at the Salvation Army in Martinsville, said need is continuing to grow a decade later. Each year the number of families coming in for assistance has increased, Chambless said. There are many people who were laid off in the past year, and the Salvation Army is currently serving more than 600 families in the area, he said.
Ralph Lawson of Christmas Cheer also helped make the Community Christmas Project possible in December 1999. That year, a special needs fund was created exclusively for Tultex employees, he said.
Since then, Lawson said the special needs fund has become permanent. Each year, the fund is distributed to different groups in the area based on need, he said.
Before Tultex closed, Lawson said Christmas Cheer helped about 800 to 900 families a year. Since the factory’s closing in 1999, there have been a minimum of 1,000 families assisted each year, he said.
Many families still cannot find work in the area and come back to Christmas Cheer each year for help, Lawson said. This year there is an even greater need due to the recession, he added.
In addition to providing a box of food for Christmas to families, Lawson said Christmas Cheer also helps qualifying local residents pay bills they cannot afford.
“Recently, we’ve been getting a lot of electric bills,” he said, “but we help families pay rent and mortgage.”
Paul Shivley has been a coordinator for Toys for Tots in Martinsville for 12 years. The program provides new toys at Christmas for children whose families cannot afford them. In recent years, need has gone up steadily, Shivley said.
He said need in the community started to go down around 2003 and 2005, but then it began to pick up. There was a dramatic difference between this year and last year, he said.
In 2008, eight local families made personal requests for toys for their children, but this year there were almost 30 families who made personal requests, Shivley said.
The requests can be made through the program’s Web site, http://martinsville-va.toysfortots.org.
Once individual requests have been filled, the remaining toys collected are given to Christmas Cheer. Those interested in donating toys may do so through the Web site, and there is a link to all the places in the community were toys can be dropped off, Shivley said.
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