Bonham, Texas -- Every year on the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving, our community shows how God works through each of us by giving, sharing, and bringing joy to Bonham. On Saturday, November 22nd, that event happened with 25 or so community Churches, groups, and organizations that transformed the First Presbyterian Church’s parking lot into something truly magical.
So what is the Spirit of Giving? In short, it’s a volunteer community event that starts in the morning and is over after noon. In that time, people that need anything from a blanket to household goods to the opportunity to win a new bike, line up for tickets to choose from 100% free gifts to kick off of the Christmas season. This year 400 people showed up early in the morning hours to get their tickets to start shopping.
The longer part of the story is how 25 faithful partners and hundreds of individuals bring all of this together.
Included in the effort are the months of planning, storing, sorting, the line of volunteers to distribute, the shipping container filled with joy, the planning, the unknown weather, the gracious partners, the coordinating stress, the hot chocolate, the hot dogs, setting up the “giving tables," the prayer circle taking up an entire parking lot, the bikes, the love….and the line down the road to serve 400 awesome folks. This is just part of the effort from our dedicated crossing guards to the Youth giving away bikes as we share lasting memories from the many wonderful faces and smiles of the morning.
This well planned event is really divine chaos. Being all volunteer work in a tight time crunch, it just works itself out no matter what the day has in store. From everyone pitching in a lending hand, it’s hard to believe what took place if you drive by couple of hours afterwards. You will see peaceful blank slate of a parking lot waiting for next year to be even better.
Please contact the Spirit of Giving via email at “spiritofgivingbonham@gmail.com" if you or someone you know would like to be a partner in 2026. We rely on donations of time and money from our community and rely on existing and new partners to make this event not just take place, but to grow each and every year.
Approximately 20 unique “giving tables” were set up for participants to shop, 500 hot dogs were served, and 125 bikes were given away to some happy faces. We acknowledge and give special thanks to those who supported this year’s successful event, including:
M W and Fair Miller Foundation
The Fletcher Family
Credit Union of Texas
The Many Individual Donors to the Spirit of Giving (SOG Bike Fund)
Big John’s Septic
Cub Scouts Pack 6054
Chi Lamda
Bethlehem Baptist Church Bonham
First Baptist Church Bonham
First United Methodist Church Bonham
Ivanhoe Baptist Church
Living Word Church of God
First Christian Church
Corinth Baptist Church
Saint James Lutheran Church of Honey Grove
K5 Fannin Radio Club
Brookshire’s
Fannin County Retired Teachers Association
Texas Health and Human Services (bike helmets)
Fix-N-Feed
TXB
Bonham ISD
Bonham Police Department
North Texas e-News
First Presbyterian Church Bonham
Academy Sports and Outdoors Sherman TX (thanks Doug and team for your logistical support every year)
