Tis’ the season for doing good by supporting organizations that serve our community.

In December, the staff at Walton Arts Center partnered with five local organizations to help give back during the holidays - The Walmart Museum, Toys for Tots, NWA Children’s Shelter, NWA Books for Kids and NWA Food Bank.

Walton Arts Center’s holiday display in the lobby was filled with vintage toys, frost-covered trees and everything needed for a winter wonderland. All of the toys and were donated by The Walmart Museum of Bentonville, including a wooden sled, board games, pedal cars and a Radio Flyer Wagon. The display was up in the Walker Atrium from Nov. 22 to Dec. 23. After the last performance on the year WAC staff and volunteers from the current Leadership Fayetteville class gathered the display items and delivered them to NWA Toys for Tots, right in time for Santa to load them in his sleigh.

An annual tradition for Walton Arts Center and Walmart AMP staff is to collect donations for Northwest Arkansas area non-profits as part of the holiday party held in December. This year, the NWA Children’s Shelter was the chosen recipient. Employees could either donate money or items that were requested by the shelter. Several employees were able to play Santa and use the monetary donations to purchase more of the requested items for the shelter including toys, snacks, paper products and winter coats.

In conjunction with two family-friendly holiday traditions, The Snowman Concert with WAC & SoNA and the annual screening of The Polar Express, Walton Arts Center partnered with NWA Books for Kids and hosted a holiday book drive. NWA Books for Kids seeks to build reading skills and a love of books among children at an early age by placing books in their homes and encouraging their parents to read together. Books collected during the drive will be given to nonprofits in our area that serve children and their families.

With a spirit of giving, the Walton Arts Center Communication team decided to forgo in their yearly “secret Santa” exchange and instead donate to the NWA Food Bank. The team donated enough money to provide 1,100 meals for NWA residents in need through the local nonprofit.

The staff at Walton Arts Center have a mindset focused on giving back to our community. We are grateful for all of the support that we receive throughout the year, and are more than happy to help other organizations that serve our community.