Soon-to-be-10-year-old donating his birthday gifts to Toys for Tots program – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State

For many children, it’s hard to match the exhilaration thatcomes with your birthday. The joy of turning a year older is onlybested by the excitement of tearing into gobs of presents anddevouring loads of cake.

For 9-year-old D’Avian Houston, all he wants for his birthday,which happens to fall the day after Christmas, is for children lessfortunate than him to receive that same excitement of opening a newtoy. For that reason, Houston decided to donate all of his birthdaypresents to Toys for Tots.

The idea stemmed from a conversation about Toys for Tots betweenD’Avian and his mother, Tanika Houston, in their car one day. Afterlearning about what Toys for Tots does, D’Avian said he wanted todonate some of his toys to help out the cause.

“I wanted to do this because all of those kids that don’t get toys,I wanted to give toys to them.” D’Avian Houston said.

Tanika Houston told her son they did not take used toys; he said hewanted to donate the presents he would get from his birthday. Whentold that Toys for Tots would be over by the time his birthdayrolled around, D’Avian suggested they have an early birthday partyto make sure the local children would have a merry Christmas.

“I said, ‘You understand, if you do that, you’re not gettinganything for your birthday,’” Tanika Houston said. “He said, ‘Iknow, I don’t want anything. If anyone brings me anything, I wantto donate it to the toy drive.’ He said he would be grateful foranything that he got, but he wanted to donate toys to kids that areless fortunate. I was blown away.”

Tanika Houston called the Lufkin chapter of the Marine CorpsLeague, the sponsors of Toys for Tots, and asked if they wouldaccept the donation on behalf of D’Avian. Brian Crews, coordinatorof Toys for Tots in Lufkin and Angelina County, said that when hegot the call from Tanika Houston he was amazed.

“It’s heartwarming to know that there is a 9-year-old that’s thatthoughtful,” Crews said. “He’s not thinking about himself, he’sthinking about the other children in the area.”

From there they set up a birthday party for D’Avian Friday night inthe first Baptist Church of Lufkin’s Life Center for a fun-fillednight that will not soon be forgotten. The Marine Corps League’sHummer even made an appearance, shuttling D’Avian and his friendsaround the block while blasting out the tunes. Members of theMarine Corps League then accepted more than 20 presents from youngD’Avian that they said would go to very grateful children aroundthe Angelina County area.

“This is probably the most meaningful donation we’ve had,” Crewssaid. “We expect adults to be compassionate and caring, but when achild does this it’s just that much more special.”

For his act of kindness, D’Avian is going to be honored by beingmade an auxiliary member of the Marine Corps League and will begiven a certificate by the league at its January meeting. Crewssaid D’Avian is just the kind of person they are looking for intheir line of work.

“We would love to have him in the Marines when he turns 18,” hesaid.

Micah Powell’s email address ismpowell@lufkindailynews.com.

© 2012 The Lufkin Daily News. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Soon-to-be-10-year-old donating his birthday gifts to Toys for Tots program – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State

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