Williams Chicken CEO, Hiawatha Williams, plays Santa Claus for a day, doling out toys, furniture, food and cash to needy Dallas residents.
Amanda Jordan and her 13-year-old son, Patrick, waited anxiously inside an Oak Cliff Wal-Mart on Wednesday with two shopping carts full of toys and clothes for Jordan’s five sons.
Jordan, 32, had lost all of her belongings in a house fire last Friday, but now Hiawatha Williams, the founder and CEO of Williams Chicken restaurants, was buying her children their Christmas gifts.
“I remember running to the house asking where my children were. Then I see them and all they had on were blankets, they were crying and they didn’t have shoes on,” Jordan said, recalling the fire that claimed her Oak Cliff home. “Even though we have no place to go right now, when Christmas morning comes my children will know that they’re going to be all right.”
Williams eschewed a sleigh and reindeer for a black Ford truck as he dashed through the streets of Dallas on Wednesday, buying toys, clothes, furniture and food for Dallas residents as part of the restaurant chain’s fourth annual Change for Change drive.
The campaign asks customers to donate their spare change throughout the company’s 38 North Texas locations between Nov. 25 and Dec. 19 to help residents in need. This year’s effort raised more than $2,000.
Williams, 66, said the campaign is his way of giving back to the community that supports his business.
