It sort of tears down the Scrooge-like stereotype when Finance Department employees dig deep to provide holiday gifts for needy East Tennessee youngsters.

But when it came time to fill a big blue barrel with toys, the City’s Finance, Risk Management, Benefits, Pension Board, Purchasing, Mailroom and Business Support employees responded. When the first Mission of Hope barrel was full, they got another. Then another.

Still, the bags and boxes of footballs, games, action figures, telescopes and art sets came, spilling over the Finance Department floor.

“In past years, we did small gift exchanges internally,” said Julie Smith Maxwell, a City Procurement Specialist. “One year, we swapped tree ornaments. But this year, we wanted to do something different; we wanted to fill a niche need. Mission of Hope asked for help collecting gifts for older boys and girls, so that’s what we did.”

The gifts are being distributed to youngsters living in impoverished areas in rural East Tennessee, Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. Assistance designated for families in these communities is particularly important, Mission of Hope advocates say, because they sometimes lack the social support programs in place in larger metropolitan areas.