A golden haul for Golden Drive Homeless Kids

FARGO, N.D. – With the Golden Drive Homeless Kids Christmas Gift Event fast approaching, volunteers are hard at work collecting donations for the big day.

On a normal day, the floor of Culver’s isn’t covered with nearly $10,000 worth of food, clothes, and other necessities.

“90% of this is needs, instead of just wants. It’s actually what a human needs to survive ya know. This is going to make a wonderful difference.” Founder of Golden Drive Homeless Kids Sue Baron said.

This is no normal day however. This is the first day where volunteers from Golden Drive Homeless Kids pick up all of the donations from their Christmas Gift Donation Drive and the first stop of the day is the Culver’s on 25th Street.

“The first year we had I think 10 or 15 pajamas. Maybe 20 toys. We got it put together in three weeks. We had a couple of diapers. We thought it was great.” Culver’s Owner Ashley Nilson said.

Ashley Nilson and her Culver’s chains were some of the earliest supporters of the drive.

“I look forward to it every year. My employees, some of them have been with me since the beginning and they look forward to it and jump on board. It’s kind of a game now to see how much of the dining room we can fill up, so next year we need to go bigger and better and get more stuff,” Nilson said.

She says it was easy for Culver’s to jump on board. Especially with Sue Baron at the helm.

“She’s very passionate about what she does and she is always here and relentless, and she wants to do good in the community and wants to make a change in kids lives, and that’s what Culver’s is about,” Nilson explained.

That passion has been alive and well since the very beginning.

“This whole organization started with one crayon when I was a server. I was simply going to buy coloring books and drop them off at a shelter, but it turned into much more,” Baron said.

The drive is a success, as it has been in the past, and thanks to thousands of donations from around the community, homeless shelters in the area will be receiving a huge boost of much needed food, household necessities and gifts this Christmas.

“Words. Words are hard to come by. It’s just so impactful it brings you to tears,” Baron said.

Donations can be dropped off at the West Fargo Fire Department’s main location on 1st Street.

The Golden Drive Christmas Gift Event takes place on Friday December 13th at 2:00 PM and the public is invited.