Toys for Tots and Elks angel trees updated locations

By Ethan Nahté

The Polk County Arkansas Toys for Tots program and the Elks angel tree has made updates to their Facebook page, adding more locations to drop off toys or fulfill an angel tree request.

In 2022, the Mena Elks Lodge fulfilled the Christmas holiday dreams of 520 children in need throughout Polk County.

Applications are for Polk County residents only and must be returned to the address provided on the application by Dec. 1. You can clip out the application located at the right or downlaod and print it from the MyPulseNews website.

Toy distribution will be 8 a.m. to noon, Dec. 16. Families must bring the postcard that will be mailed out.

They are seeking new, unwrapped toys, books and stocking stuffers for ages 17 and younger.

They have distributed boxes or angel trees in stores, churches and businesses around Polk County, including at The Polk County Pulse/KENA/ KQOR office.

Other locations:

• Arvest Bank – Mena

• Bealls – Mena

• Chambers Bank – Mena

• Calvary Baptist Church - Mena

• Diamond Bank - Mena

• Dollar General, Mena, Hatfield, Cove and Wickes

• Family Dollar – Mena angel tree

• First Presbyterian Church –Mena

• First United Methodist Church –Mena

• Freedom Pharmacy – Mena

• The Mena Star – Mena

• St. Agnes Catholic Church –Mena

• Skyline Café – coinbox only

• The Q on Main/Suzy Q’s – Mena

• Union Bank – Mena, Hatfield and Wickes

• Walmart – Mena angel tree

• Washburn’s - Mena

You can also find updates on Facebook by searching for Polk County Toys for Tots.

The program is sponsored by the Marine Corps League and the Mena Elks Lodge.

By Richie Lawry

During the first part of 1993, our family built our new home. To save money, we would go to the building site every evening and clean up after the workers. Seeing the progress each day was exciting, even though it seemed painfully slow.

Before the new house was completed, the house we were living in sold, and we needed a place to live while our new house was finished. My parents had an available rental house in Yocana, so we moved to the country. Our new home was nearing completion and would be ready to move into in a few weeks. We enjoyed living in the country, even if the long drive into town several times a day did get old.

The house on the hilltop overlooked the highway, and cows in the field behind the house stood at the fence and watched as we moved in. Before long, the excitement of living in a new home in the country wore off for my kids. There is nothing to do, they complained. My son would let us know that he was “bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.”

We didn’t have satellite television because we would only be there for a few weeks. Our only entertainment was a VHS player, a small television, and a few VHS tapes. One of the movies we owned was the Disney film “Newsies.” My daughter, who was in the eighth grade, loved the movie. It seemed that she watched it every day.

The movie “Newsies” is based on the true story of the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. Thousands of homeless children try to make a living selling newspapers. Newsboy Jack “Cowboy” Kelly, played by Christian Bale, is a newsboy selling newspapers for Joseph Pulitzer and his paper, the New York World. The newsboys must purchase the newspapers for 50 cents per hundred and make money by selling them for a penny each.

Early in the film, Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst agree to raise the