LINDA CHION KENNEY FILE PHOTO
With children eager for the start of drawings for new bicycles last year, from left, Michael Santos of Mickey Buys Houses; James Hartley; and Norma Flores, manager at La Estancia apartments.
Migrant holiday mission a go despite pandemic
By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Even a world health crisis can’t stop James Hartley of Riverview and his supporters from making sure migrant children and their families are not forgotten his holiday season.
In this, his 32nd year of mission work in Hillsborough County, Hartley will be back at the La Estancia apartments in Wimauma on Dec. 19 to distribute toys, toothpaste, toothbrushes, candy and bicycles donated and collected, in good measure, by congregants and members of the Christ Fellowship of Tampa (where Hartley has been a deacon for 51 years) and the Kiwanis Club of Carrollwood (where Hartley has been a member for 44 years).
Also major supporters of this year’s Wimauma drive are Mickey Buys Houses, Brewlands Bar and Billiards, Boy Scout Troop No. 33 of Land O’Lakes and Tampa Rough Riders, whose members are set to deliver teddy bears and other assorted presents.
Meanwhile, last-minute donations were still being accepted this week from interested donors, in hopes to both match and surpass last year’s giving. The drive last year brightened the holidays for 91 families and 153 kids, including 53 who won the raffle for a bicycle, all but five of them brand-spanking new. While food was distributed last year as well, it will not be this year due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Hartley said earlier this week that more than 150 wish lists have been submitted, with more expected, and that people interested in donating last-minute gifts can drop them off Saturday morning, Dec. 19, at Las Estancia at 9 a.m. Suggested donations include hoodies, toys, teen girl gifts, bicycles and more. Gifts that are not distributed at La Estancia will be donated to Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, Hartley said.
Mission work is not new for Hartley and his family, who 32 years ago launched the holiday drive after a call to United Way, and then to the Good Samaritan mission, which led to the Hartley family’s adopting three families to gift for the holidays.
The second year “there were about 30 kids,” Hartley said, and from there “every year it morphed into a little more and a little more and other people stepped in to help.”
Reaching out to help others is not new to Hartley, who said that through his mission-minded church he has led 16 overseas mission trips. Likewise, through Southern Baptist Disaster Relief of Florida, over the past nine years, Hartley has been involved in 14 disaster-relief trips in America.
“Our pastor says it’s better to burn out than to rust out,” said Hartley, who this year turned 80. “It may sound self-serving, but I don’t mean it that way. My makeup is to help people. I was a Boy Scout from age 11 to 19, and I’ve always been service-minded.”
As for the overwhelming need that remains evident even after a donation of gifts and services is received, Hartley said it is important not to remain aloof as a result.
“I learned early on that you never have enough time and resources to get done what you want and that needs to be done,” Hartley said. “You have to learn when it’s time to stop and let the next team come in.”
As for the annual year-end migrant family drive, Hartley said people are ready to step up and continue the tradition for years to come. Work in that regard started early this year but was delayed due to the pandemic.
With that effort still a promise for the future, Hartley has been working with volunteers and partners to pull off this year’s drive without a hitch, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. And when all is said and done, Hartley added, he expects as usual the tables will be turned when it comes to the warm feelings that bask the gift of giving.
“As anybody who has ever given a gift of hospitality and service can tell you, when you give and then you leave, people are thankful for it, and they’re appreciative of it,” Hartley said. “But I think you feel better than they do. I can’t explain it. It’s just the feeling you get when you help people.”
La Estancia Apartments in Wimauma is at 5292 Guadalupe Blvd. Call 813-633-8266 for more information.