Resident brings smiles to faces of children in Diamond

The role of Santa Claus has been played by a male for many decades.

However, on Christmas morning, Diamond resident Michelle McIntosh became Santa Claus for over 40 children in that community, distributing gifts to them.{{more}}

McIntosh, a sales representative, took up residency in the Diamond community in 2005 and since then has developed a close relationship with many of the other residents.

“There are some children that I know that would not have had a toy for Christmas.

“So, I just decided to put everything together and drove through the village and distributed the gifts to the kids. They were so elated and their parents were very happy,” McIntosh told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday.

The gifts, which included teddy bears, story books and an assortment of toys, were once owned by McIntosh’s 11-year-old granddaughter, Jayda.

“She had a lot of toys.”

McIntosh, however, revealed that Jayda was “very reluctant” at first about giving away so many of her toys, but eventually gave in after her grandmother helped her to understand the reason behind donating her possessions.

“These are stuff that she had for a long time, but well taken care of and she felt that the kids would not take care of the stuff like she did. So it was kind of hard for her to let go.

“Even when we go there, I saw the pain in her eyes of letting go her stuff, but in the end she was convinced that these were kids who really needed them more than her. Because she has a lot and she has also reached the age where she had out-grown some of them (toys),” she added.

According to McIntosh, the smiles on the faces of the children who received gifts and the overwhelming response from parents have prompted her into repeating the act next year.

“It is something that I am really looking forward to. I have already started putting things in place to get more toys to give to the kids next year,” said McIntosh.(AA)