GREENSBORO — Jarrett Joyce has made some unusual deliveries, to say the least.
Joyce, star of the A&E network’s “Shipping Wars,” has delivered 1,800-pound pumpkins, the world’s largest popcorn ball and capuchin monkeys.
“They bite,” Joyce said. “They bite hard. They draw blood.”
But on Wednesday, Joyce helped make a special — and painless — delivery: hundreds of toys for the Salvation Army’s Christmas families.
Joyce, a Winston-Salem native, helped his friend Nathan Tabor unload the toys late Wednesday morning at the Salvation Army’s warehouse on South Holden Road.
Tabor, a Kernersville businessman and founder of ChristmasToyDrive.com, has joined with the Salvation Army for three years to provide toys for Piedmont Triad families at Christmas.
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“I’m friends with Nathan,” Joyce said. “We’ve stayed in touch. I try to help him when I can.”
The two men, along with Tabor’s 8-year-old daughter Abigail, helped unload an 8-by-12-foot trailer full of footballs, basketballs, dart guns, doll strollers, Barbies and more. Salvation Army Maj. Don Vick and others rolled shopping carts full of the toys back into the building, where they would be sorted, bagged and boxed for families to pick up beginning Friday.
For Vick, the delivery was right on time. The Salvation Army provided toys to 3,800 Greensboro children last year.
This year, there are more than 4,000 children in need of gifts.
Vick said there also was an uptick in two-parent families who signed up with the Salvation Army to receive help.
He said there are still more than 200 children the organization has to find toys for by today.
“It’s a struggle every year, to tell you the truth,” Vick said.
But people have been helpful. Area children are receiving toys from families that have adopted them and through toy drives held throughout the community. Inside the warehouse are neatly lined boxes with bags that hold children’s Christmas wishes. Individuals and businesses have donated the toys, including nearly 700 bicycles.
As Joyce and Tabor unloaded the last of the toys, Vick surveyed them.
“Somehow, every year, we end up with enough,” he said, “and we don’t have to turn anybody away that we’ve promised.”
