Adam Armstrong grew up in the town of Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he and his family lived in Harris Gardens Apartments, a low-income complex.
“I remember Harrisonburg being a friendly small town,” the 35-year-old recalled to NBC News . “I remember government housing and a lot of poverty, crimes, drugs, violence, and things of that nature.”
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Although he now lives in Penn Laird, Armstrong has never forgotten his poor upbringing, and has made it his mission as an adult to bring some Christmas cheer to all the local children living in a situation he is all-too familiar with.
Since 2013, Armstrong has returned to Harrisonburg for his annual Christmas giveaway.
Every year, he rolls into town with a 26-foot truck, packed to the brim with $12,000 worth of toys.
Donning a festive Santa hat, he takes that truck to Harris Gardens, as well as three other nearby low-income developments, where he donates all the goodies inside to the neighborhood kids.
Harris Gardens property manager Sara Lewis-Weeks made flyers to notify the kids in the complexes to show up on the morning of December 9 for a toy giveaway.
She likened the donations to Oprah’s iconic 2004 giveaway in which every member of her talk-show audience received a free car.
“[The kids] thought it was going to be a couple of stuffed animals,” Lewis-Weeks told NBC News , “not ‘And you get a bike, and you get a bike, and you get a bike’, like an ‘Oprah’ for little kids.”
The truck was filled with bicycles, remote-controlled cars, Barbie dolls, and other generous toy offerings.
“You see these kids and you hand them a baby doll, or a Nerf gun, a bicycle, two little boys throwing a football, and you can’t put a price on the feeling that gives you,” Armstrong said. “I consider myself very blessed.”
After hitting up all the apartments, he donated the remaining toys to the Salvation Army.
Armstrong said Harris Gardens has a very special place in his heart, which is why he made sure to stop there first.
“I use to live right here… about 15 years ago,” he told WHSV .
He said he has fond Christmas memories from his childhood and wanted to make sure children living in similar situations can have the same memories, too.
“I mean to watch the kids, the expression on the kids’ faces,” Armstrong said, “that’s just priceless.”
