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Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
Above: Caroline Lollar brings presents to King’s Home. Right: Lollar watches children at King’s Home pick out toys from the presents she brought for them.
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Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
Lollar watches children at King’s Home pick out toys from the presents she brought for them.
The Lollar family was driving home from Kampfire for the King, an annual November event in support of King’s Home, when 7-year-old Caroline piped up from the back seat. Her birthday was coming up, and meeting the children who live at King’s Home gave her an idea: Instead of getting gifts on her birthday, Caroline wanted to give them.gifts
“We were a little bit shocked that a 7-year-old came up with this, to be honest,” said Caroline’s father, Chris Lollar.
King’s Home is an organization that takes in mothers and children suffering from abuse, neglect or abandonment. Their youth and women’s campuses in Shelby County provide counseling, education, spiritual assistance, help in finding a new path for their lives and a safe place to live while they do it.
Chris Lollar and his wife, Holly, have been involved with King’s Home for several years, and Chris Lollar is on the board of directors, but he said it wasn’t his idea. It was all Caroline. When asked why she wanted to do this, Caroline said she wanted “to show the love of Jesus” to the children she had met on the hayride at Kampfire for the King.
“Daddy almost cried. It was really sweet and she really did think of this on her own,” Chris Lollar said.
Caroline, who lives in the Altadena area and is a first-grader at Briarwood Christian School, stayed true to her plan. Everyone invited to her birthday party was requested to bring a gift for children ages 10 and younger who are staying with their mothers at King’s Home. Caroline collected about 25 presents, including books, toy trucks, stuffed animals and more.
Valerie Goodman, who works in the marketing department at King’s Home, said the mothers and children Caroline chose to donate to are most often fleeing domestic abuse or homelessness situations. They come to King’s Home seeking protection, financial support and guidance to put their lives back together, often with “just the clothes on their back and a bag — and sometimes it’s just a trash bag.”
While King’s Home relies in part on the donations and volunteer work of adults in the community, Goodman said it’s much more rare to see the same generosity from young children.
“It’s an incredible story of a child realizing that they are blessed and wanting to give back,” Goodman said.
A few days after her Dec. 15 birthday, Caroline showed up at King’s Home with her father, sister Lily and bags of toys in tow. She had been eagerly anticipating the chance to deliver the toys “because I’ve been waiting for I don’t know how long,” Caroline said.
Caroline was grinning from ear to ear as she placed the presents under the King’s Home Christmas tree and watched the children start playing with the toys she had brought them.
“I think it’s great for the community to see that, because generosity begets generosity,” Goodman said.
