Shawn Waite and his wife, Lynette, are East Tennesseans who lost everything in the 2016 Thanksgiving Gatlinburg wildfires that rendered countless people including themselves homeless for the holidays that year. Their son didn’t have a Christmas, and the Waite family became determined that others similarly situated would have a holiday to remember regardless of the circumstances.

Lynette and Shawn Waite with their elves prepare to serve

A North Carolina geological disaster brought Shawn and Lynette’s vision to the forefront this year. On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene ripped through the Western North Carolina mountains turning lives upside down. Countless children faced the prospect of a Christmas without gifts. Some had no homes and their loved ones have no money to spare.

Rock Sprite Kitty Myers and Badger have been directly involved in the Helene relief effort with fundraising, raising awareness of the ongoing crisis and providing boots on the ground support. Badger has been active on social media encouraging faith-based organizations, charities and like-minded individuals to keep beating the drum to help the plight of communities devastated by this unbelievably destructive storm.

The Mabrys grew up with the Henson Family in Fountain City and we all graduated from Central High School. Bill “Bubba” Henson is a few years younger than I am – my deceased brother Jim’s age – and we’ve kept up with each other primarily through Facebook. Bubba is a veteran of the erstwhile basketball games in the Mabry garage on Snowden Drive, too.

Thomas Mabry (aka Badger) with Kitty Myers (aka Rock Sprite) with Bubba Henson (Santa) and wife Carmel

Badger didn’t know that among Bubba’s talents was portraying Santa Claus and bringing good tidings and gifts to youngsters during several previous holiday seasons.

One evening, recently, Bubba contacted me and asked if Kitty and I ever visited Burnsville, North Carolina. He said that he and his lovely wife, Carmel, were traveling to Shoal Creek Baptist Church to support the Waites in bringing gifts and Yuletide cheer to the crippled Toe River community and wondered if we could make it.

Make it, yes, we did! Getting there was treacherous (and will be the subject of another article) but this event called Mystery Wonderland was incredible. Bubba handled the role of Kris Kringle with aplomb and the Waites raised enough funds to bring almost 2,000 gifts to distribute to the youngsters! Pastor Eddie McClure is new to the Shoal Creek ministry and his outreach to families of all color was as sincere as it was heartwarming. He graciously welcomed the needed assistance from his new friends from East Tennessee.

Pastor Eddie McClure discusses plans for serving the community at Christmas

With the help of Shawn, Lynette and Pastor Eddie, the Hensons proved once again that pride and tradition never leave the heart of a Bobcat. Through good times and bad, we are blessed by our willingness to go to any lengths to support our fellow man. I’ve said it before, but it’s neighbors helping neighbors once again.

Merry Christmas everyone! #dontforgethelene

Author’s Note: The Shawn and Lynette Waite backstory was featured on WVLT-TV recently. You can find the accompanying article here:

Toy drive ensures no kids miss Christmas following flooding from Helene

Thomas Mabry – Honey Badger Images

Many of the HoneyBadgerImages are on display at instagram.com/honeybadgerimages.