Black Friday Gives Back: Capitalizing On A Capitalist Holiday

HILLSBORO, OR — Jim McNally stared in disbelief at the mountain of toys leaned against the back wall of his taproom in downtown Hillsboro Monday night. For the third year in a row, his public house was nearly overflowing with the spirit of Christmas charity.

As one of the most consistently productive Toys for Tots drop-off sites in Oregon, McNally’s Taproom at 370 E. Main St. had grown accustomed to seeing the annual donations for kids pile up in the days and weeks prior to Dec. 25; but this year was different. This year, McNally knew something special was happening.

“I’m overwhelmed with your sense of generosity,” McNally told the gathered crowd of people responsible for the toy mountain on Nov. 27.

A former U.S. Marine himself, McNally takes great pride in annually participating in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program. Yet he knows he couldn’t do it without the help of caring Samaritans like Angela and Aaron Price, Bruce Reed, and the more than 20 other people who spent more than $6,000 on Black Friday to make this significant donation of more than 400 toys possible.

Every year McNally’s has accepted donations, the Prices arranged to bring their collective haul to his drop-off site, basically assuring his considerable donation would be among the greatest in the state. But every year, McNally had no idea who was responsible for it — or how they were making it happen.

That changed a few weeks ago.

"I’ve seen Angela posting about her Black Friday antics for charity for the past two years and couldn’t wait until my kids were older so that I could stay out all night to join in the fun. We joined the Black Friday Scavenger Hunt because we wanted a way to give back. It was my daughter's first Black Friday experience, and I wanted her to see the good that can come from it — instead of the greed. It was such a great bonding experience for such a great cause, something I would love to do with each of my daughters someday." — Amy Taylor, Team "Butcrackers"

A Charitable Proposal

The Prices, Reeds, and a handful of their neighbors got together in 2015 with a plan to flip Black Friday on its head.

“Everything is on just such a great deal with all the sales, we thought someone should take advantage of that,” Angela said. “Maximize the toy sales.”

Already familiar with the Black Friday concept, the Prices and Reeds had joined the shopping fray the previous two years as "Bargain Hunters" in search of discounted items for their own families, completely clad in camouflage. Later, they also shopped for local families in-need who’d sought assistance through the church attended by Bruce’s wife Leah.

“We would buy a couple toys for our kids,” Aaron said of those first few years, noting his son and daughter were at the time young enough for many of the kinds of toys on discount during Black Friday. “But (my daughter) doesn’t need eight Barbies — though Barbies are $4 each. So, we’re like, ‘Man, I wish we had more people we could buy toys for.’”

From there, Angela started brainstorming ways to take advantage of the sales while making the experience fun at the same time — because, admittedly, shopping on Black Friday is not objectively “fun.”

Eventually, four south Hillsboro families — the Prices and Reeds along with their neighbors, the Shufelts and Foidels — came up with the idea of the Scavenger Hunt: a list of wacky things to find and do while also purchasing as many toys as they could afford for Toys for Tots (which is not currently affiliated with the scavenger hunt event).

The hunt would run from 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 8 a.m. Friday. Teams could shop at any point in that window, but once an item was completed by a team, and then posted as either a photo or video to their scavenger hunt Facebook page with their hashtagged team name, it would no longer be available for any other team to complete.

The first year they held the scavenger hunt each family used its own money, collectively donating 75 toys in 2015.

Throughout the following year, Angela worked on beefing up the scavenger list items; she also incorporated a point system for each listed item and action depending on the level of difficulty in either performing the action (like recording yourself drinking from a jar of brown Thanksgiving gravy – 20 points) or finding the item (such as an egg nog-scented candle – 5 points).

Additionally, they decided they would seek donations to help with the cause, rather than attempt to use their own money alone — which would never be as much as they needed to donate as many toys as they wanted.

In 2016, four teams of four people each were able to fundraise $1,150 and purchase 141 toys on Black Friday. And for the second year, McNally still had no idea who was bringing the donations to the taproom.

In early November 2017, Angela approached McNally about hosting the first scavenger hunt afterparty. At last learning the identities of his generous benefactors, McNally was quick to say yes.

Before they could party, however, they needed to conduct the hunt — and this year they had considerably more money from donations, though on Black Friday only the respective team members knew the balance of their own account.

So, with nearly $900 between them, Angela, Aaron, Bruce, and Bruce’s daughter Kaycee formed their 3-year-old team (which they dubbed "Beauty and the Beards") and went shopping for toys.

"When we decided to do the scavenger hunt, we thought completing all the silly tasks would just make it that much more fun shopping with friends — and bonus that we get some toys for a great charity. We were a bit overwhelmed with the amount of money that was donated to our team by co-workers and friends, and it didn’t really hit us how much we would be able to get with $3,100 until we tried to spend it. When we piled all the toys together in Tricia’s living room on Friday morning, we were all giddy and not just from lack of sleep. Our hearts were full knowing these toys would help bring a little joy to so many kids on Christmas morning. We can’t wait to do this again next year!" — Wendy Lewellen, Team Hoodies

The Black Friday Scavenger Hunt 2017

“Hey, you guys wanna do the Macarena?” Kaycee Reed asked with the kind of smile often found on the faces of courageous, self-assured 16-year-old girls.

The small group of confused Target shoppers to whom Kaycee was speaking obviously didn’t expect the question in the middle of the Black Friday madness that was currently taking place at the Sunset Esplanade in Hillsboro, but Kaycee had gotten their attention.

“Excuse me, what?” one of the onlookers replied.

It was a response Kaycee and her Beauty and the Beards partners would hear many times that Thanksgiving night, but it was a response for which they had prepared all year long.

Kaycee, with the confidence of a ringmaster, led the small group of bemused shoppers through a quick and sloppy rendition of the immortal 1993 dance hit (sans Los Del Rio) in the middle of the electronics section just after 10:30 p.m. Nov. 23.

Across the aisle by the cell phones, Bruce spoke with a line of shoppers waiting to get their Black Friday phone deal.

“Do you want to punch me?” he asked a startled Beaverton resident. Bruce’s thick and rather intimidating red and silver beard belied his compassionate and kind nature, and the young man to whom he spoke had to muster his own courage to acquiesce the totally bizarre question.

“How many points does that get you?” Cody Rizzo asked after taking a brave, forceful swing into Bruce’s bicep. When asked about the experience, Rizzo told Patch, “It was giving me some anxiety, but I feel better now.”

Yes, punching a stranger in Target will do that.

After completing several more tasks, which at one point required an explanation to Target’s management, Beauty and the Beards spent several hundred dollars on toys before heading out to Walmart in Cornelius, then to the Kohl’s back in Hillsboro, near Orenco.

They arrived at Kohl’s around 1:15 a.m. with dozens of items crossed off the list; and between Target and Walmart, they'd bought so many toys they had to make a trip back home to unload the van.

While Aaron, Angela, and Kaycee knocked out a few more tasks and made a few more purchases, Bruce spent some time outside the store speaking with the Hoodies, the team that would ultimately take home the scavenger hunt trophy on Monday.

Tricia Casteel, Nadeen Mayfield, Cheyanne Seeley, and Wendy Lewellen were able to collect $3,100 in donations between them — much of which came from Mayfield and Lewellen’s co-workers at Intel and Tuality Healthcare, respectively.

The evening (morning?) ended after a run through the Tualatin Valley Highway Fred Meyer at 5 a.m. and a quick stop at Big 5 Sporting Goods so Aaron could make his annual new sunglasses purchase.

"Our team has been Black Friday shopping together for years. We would always run into what we now call 'Beauty and the Beards' at Fred Meyer before dawn. They pitched this idea and we got excited. Epic Fun + Charity = Holiday Spirit. Santa's Vixens have had the honor of participating since the inception, and we look forward to it every year. We believe that love, laughter, and kindness are infectious, and spreading more of that around the holiday is good for the soul. Additionally, Tammee grew up as a recipient of charitable giving programs, so coming full-circle in this way is beyond gratifying. Words don't adequately describe the level of gratitude we feel for our donors, fellow teams, and McNally's, but we certainly feel blessed." — Tammee Meneghin, Team Santa's Vixens

#BlackFridayGivesBack

Of the 463 toys donated to Toys for Tots, the Hoodies contributed 211 to help them earn first place, Beauty and the Beards took second place, Santa’s Vixens took third, Butcrackers came in fourth, Three Heauxs earned fifth, and Shopzillas and the Foidelves rounded out sixth and seventh, respectively.

But more than the competition of the hunt, or the tallying of what are truly arbitrary points, it’s the act of giving — knowing they’ve made Christmas all the more special for hundreds of children — that each of the scavenger hunt participants find rewarding.

“We went shopping one year, just the three of us, and when we got home we had kind of a gross pile of stuff in our room,” Angela said. “I mean, there were a few toys for the kids; but we bought towels and silverware and — I don’t even know what we bought.

“I mean, everybody does that,” she continued. “But it felt like we needed to take that money and make Black Friday about giving back — make it about someone else.”

In total, $6,195 was spent for Toys for Tots. Between 26 people, this is what they bought:

• 16 Bikes
• 7 Big Wheels
• 12 Scooters
• 5 Skateboards
• 15 Hot Wheels sets
• 50 Barbies
• 13 Playdoh sets
• 32 Star Wars toys
• 32 Superhero/Marvel/DC toys
• 26 Disney toys
• 9 Minecraft toys
• 12 Lego sets
• 12 Monster High dolls
• 5 Shopkins
• 28 Nerf guns
• 6 My little Ponies
• 7 Mega Blocks
• 12 Remote control toys
• 7 Thomas the Trains
• 2 Trolls
• 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• 2 Minions
• 11 Art sets
• 5 Pokémon
• 6 Paw Patrol
• 6 Transformers
• 8 Sesame Street toys
• 4 Play Kitchens
• 2 tool benches
• 1 Baby doll highchair
• 15 Vehicles/Boats /Trucks
• 43 Board Games
• 12 Card Games
• 3 Sports Balls
• 5 Dolls
• 2 Pogo Sticks
• 27 various other toys
• And, of course, a partridge in a pear tree.

For more information on this year’s scavenger hunt, and to find out how you can get involved next year, visit the group’s public Facebook page: The Black Friday Scavenger Hunt.

Top image via Travis Loose, Patch News