The Okie Christmas Toy Run, a charity organization of local motorcyclists, partnered with the Bryan County Turning Point Coalition last Saturday for a poker run to benefit the Back to School Bash, a program that provides backpacks and school supplies to children.
The event started at Freedom Dodge in Durant.
“We’re here to help support Bryan County kids with a backpack run and we’re with Bryan County Turning Coalition and we’re just putting on a poker run with them in order to come up with backpacks and supplies because school’s just around the corner,” said Lisa Townsend, of Okie Toy Run.”
She said many were participating in the ride.
“There are clubs and actually a lot of just single people that like to ride and they’re are out here and are actually not in any organization,” Townsend said. “They’re just friends and town folks and they’re all here to help us support Bryan County.”
Okie Christmas Toy Run is affiliated with the Durant Lions Club, Toys for Tots and Feeding Hope.
Melynda Keeling chair of the Bryan County Turning Point Coalition, said the goal of partnering with Okie Christmas Toy Run was to collect more school supplies for children.
“We already have collected close to 900 backpacks and just a ton of supplies but we just don’t know the grand total yet,” Keeling said. “We have partnered up with the Okie Christmas Toy Run and our overall goal is to collect school supplies for the children of Bryan County.”
Allison Dunn, treasurer for Bryan County Turning Point Coalition, said the Back to School Bash giveaway will be Aug. 3 at the Boys & Girls Club. The program has been operating for nine years.
“We’ll be starting at 8 a.m. and all kids in Bryan County can come and get school supplies, a backpack and hair voucher and their eyes checked with the Lions Club,” Dunn said.
On July 19, Willow Springs Marina and Resort partnered with the Okie Christmas Toy Run for a fish fry to help with the Back to School Bash. In a social media post, Okie Christmas Toy Run said almost 1,000 backpacks and many school supplies were collected plus $1,680 was raised between a float raffle donated by Blackbeard Marine and the fish fry.
Saturday, Three Valley Riders is hosting the Christmas in July Dice Run & Auction at Durant Elks Lodge to benefit Feeding Hope. Registration and the first dice roll is at 9:30 a.m. and it concludes at noon. The auction begins at 12:30.
Feeding Hope provides meals to the community and currently has a building under construction.
