'Angel' Saves Christmas for One Child

MACCLENNY, FL -- When a hard-to-find Christmas gift disappeared moments after it was bought, a local 'angel' kept the Grinch from stealing the dreams of a 9-year-old.

It started at the Wal-Mart when Angela Knuckles finally located the Cub Scout crossbow for her 9-year-old son.

"We had been searching and searching and we found one throughout Jacksonville and Lake City, we found one at the Macclenny Wal-Mart," said Knuckles.

But when they got home and began to unpack the truck, something was missing.

"It wasn't there...and I said, 'Oh My goodness! We've lost the bow!'"

But at that moment, miles away, Richard Allen was just heading into the Wal-Mart.

"I was walking up and happened to find a compound crossbow sitting in a shopping cart, and I just knew it was for a little kid at Christmas."

So Allen took the bow home, and the next morning he called the publisher of the Hometown Journal, the free weekly paper for these parts.

The publisher put an ad for the missing Christmas gift on the front page, and it worked!

"So I called, and described it to him and it was it!" said a gleeful Knuckles.

"I thought, 'My goodness! What an angel!' He just had enough compassion and heart to take the time out to know that that meant something to a child."

Allen remains humble, fully aware that he preserved the dream of one young boy for Christmas morning.

"It feels good. It feels good," he said.

Angela Knuckles chalks it up to a blessing from her mom, who recently passed, and this place she calls 'Home.'

"We're such a small, close-knit town that people have that loving compassion for one another," she said.

And fighting back tears, she said she'll never forget the humble volunteer firefighter who saved her boy's Christmas.

"Somebody that was a big enough angel as he did to return it to the rightful owner!"

Richard Allen's spirit of giving isn't over just yet. He and his fellow volunteer firefighters are having a Turkey Shoot this Friday and Saturday to raise funds to buy more toys for underprivileged children in the area.