By Mike Gervais
Register Staff

12-25-2007

A Nevada-based company once again went above and beyond to ensure a very merry Christmas for local youngsters.

Western Nevada Supply, which has offices throughout northern Nevada, Eastern California and Idaho, donated more than $60,000 to under-privileged youngsters in communities where they do business. That includes Bishop and its surrounding communities.

As a volunteer watches on, a youngster finds joy in the toy aisle at Kmart on Dec. 1, attempting to spend the $100 he received for Christmas from Western Nevada Supply. Hundreds of volunteers helped more than 200 kids manage their money and pick out gifts for themselves and their families. Photo by Mike Gervais

“Every year at Christmas we take 600 kids on a shopping spree and give them $100 each” as part of the nine-year-old Kids Christmas Shopping Spree program, said Western Nevada Supply Kids Christmas Coordinator Jody Hedgcorth.
Western Nevada Supply picked about 200 under-privileged kids from this area and designated as many volunteers to lead them around the Bishop Kmart. The kids had free reign, and were able to spend their $100 at their own discretion.
“We give them the money and they get to spend it however they want,” Hedgcorth said. “We like them to spend it on warm clothes and things, but they also get to pick out toys.”
Many of the youngsters from the Bishop area took their $100 and not only purchased some of their wish-list items, but took care of some Christ-mas shopping, purchasing gifts for their parents, grandparents and siblings.
Western Nevada Supply works with local school districts and Boys and Girls clubs to identify children who can benefit from the shopping spree.
“All the kids are underprivileged kids that would benefit from a shopping spree,” she explained.
“The kids are all chosen from where we do business, and the volunteers   are our employees, their familiesand our customers,” Hedgcorth said. The 200 volunteers that guided the children during their shopping spree in Bishop included several local residents and public officials.
Bishop City Councilmember Martin “Smiley” Connolly is among those in the community with nothing but effusive praise for Western Nevada Supply’s program.
He was one of several community members who served as a shopping escort for the children, and was once again humbled by and amazed at the experience.
“I had the pleasure of taking two kids shopping. The first thing the little boy did was he took me to the pillows and said, ‘I wanna buy a pillow for my mom and a pillow for my grandmother,” Connolly said.
“Getting volunteers never seems to be a problem,” Hedgcorth said,  with people signing up a year in advance. “We always get a positive response, everyone thinks this is the best project they’ve seen from a private company,” she added.
This year Western Nevada Supply hosted three shopping sprees, the one here in Bishop, one in Fallon,  Nev. and one in Boise, Idaho. “We usually rotate through eastern California, northern Nevada and Idaho” for the location of the shopping spree, said Hedgcorth. But this year the company was able to hold the event in three different communities.
Western Nevada Supply has been hosting the event since 1998 in lieu of purchasing gifts for its clients, and since its inception, more than 2,500 children have benefited.    
“A lot of people say this event reminds them of the true meaning of Christmas,” Hedgcorth said. And that stood true in Bishop as many local shoppers stopped to watch as the 200 youngsters darted through aisles, examined toys and thanked, hugged and kissed volunteers.
Connolly is in the process of working with the City of Bishop on some sort of commendation for Western Nevada Supply.
“I want to see that Western Nevada Supply gets a real nice thank you from the City of Bishop,” he said at the last council meeting, held Dec. 10.