A miracle on Providence Lane
Busta’s Person of the Week
By Busta Brown
The Chronicle
I’m sure you’ve heard of the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street.” This past Tuesday, Dec. 19, it was a miracle on Providence Lane in Winston-Salem.
The true reason for the season was in full effect, at 1340 AM The Light radio station, with “Boss Lady” Anita Dean- Arnette’s Toy Drive.
A mother of two was in tears as they handed her a gift bag filled with toys and fruit, and then presented her sons with bikes. “This is a true miracle for me and my sons, because this was a tough year for us, and I had no idea how I was going to buy them gifts this Christmas. This is truly a blessing from God.”
I also met a mother of six as one of the volunteers was packing her SUV with toys, a basketball goal and stand, and fruit. “This is going to put smiles on a lot of faces when I get home. I wasn’t able to do it like I normally would, so this is a true miracle for me. It means a lot.”
All of the volunteers were just as excited to give the gifts as the families were to receive them, Shirley Gaither said she’s there every year with Dean-Arnette because she loves what she’s doing.
As I was hugging and greeting the families as they came into the radio station, the kids got a big surprise: Santa Claus stopped by. He said hello to everyone, gave out hugs, made sure the children received the gift that was on their letters to him, and also took pictures. One little boy said, “This was the best early Christmas gift ever!” Santa’s elves were giving out hugs and taking pictures as well.
After making sure everything was going as planned, and all of the families were happy, the Boss Lady sat down to tell about her Toy Drive. She was wearing a necklace with Christmas lights blinking, antlers, a beautiful red sweater, and a smile and her spirit was glowing with love, peace and joy.
“Busta I couldn’t be better; Santa is in town, and God is good and all of that. I’m so excited; we have people in here today that lives are being changed one by one. We do this every year, because I saw a need in our community. We’re blessed to have so many donations, we received 57 new bicycles, and we thank God for everybody who participates, and this is what it’s all about. We try to accommodate every letter, we received about a hundred letters this year, and everybody that sent a letter in was helped, and we have toys left over, so we’ll deliver those to different organizations that help families for Chrsitmas.”
Dean-Arnette is loved and well-respected by so many, including all of us at The Chronicle, so I asked the radio legend to share some words of encouragement for those who aren’t as fortunate to receive a tangible gift for the holiday. “Amen. It’s all about the greatest gift of love, and that’s Jesus Christ.”
