TAMPA, Fla — With the holidays just around the corner, the 13th annual Joy of Giving Celebration is bringing hope to hundreds of families in the Tampa area.
A parade through an east Tampa neighborhood Saturday featured floats, marching bands and cheering kids. It was one part Christmas, one part Gasparilla, and all parts community fun.
"A lot of efforts here but today, it really is about putting smiles on people's faces," WWE Global Ambassador and host Titus O'Neil said.
Mission accomplished.
Thousands of kids and their families came out to Sligh Middle Magnet School and headed home with gifts at the end of the parade route.
Free toys, sports equipment, new bikes, some families without transportation even won new cars.
"This place is awesome," 6-year-old Eric Delgado said.
For more than a decade, O’Neil and his Bullard Family Foundation along with Metropolitan Ministries have been celebrating giving joy ahead of the holidays.
"It is just a labor of love that so many people get a chance to get engaged, and especially specifically here in the east Tampa area where it's the sixth highest zip code for kids living in poverty in the state of Florida," O'Neil explained.
And for at least one day, those worries are not on top of mind. It was the joy of giving and those children’s smiles radiating through the community.
"People struggling in these economic times and for different reasons. But to be able to take that stress off of the family and bring that joy to the children is just a feeling beyond belief," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said.