Thousands of people attended the 7th Annual Cheerful Giving Barbers and Businesses Give back event on Sunday.
The event offered free haircuts to over 400 children, 1,000 bike raffle tickets, 4,000 hamburgers, and hot dogs. “Our vendors also hosted some really fun games and activities for the kids,” said Nicole. “It was another successful year! We couldn’t do without all our sponsors, and volunteers. We had a lot this year,” said Nicole Lopez, from Nicole Lopez Media.
But one of the biggest and most expensive prizes was a car donated by Auto Resources, which was raffled off. Merced resident Crystal Condon was the lucky winner. Crystal tells Merced Daily she’s thankful for the annual Cheerful Giving event. She’s been attending the event for about 4 years. “I donated money to the Cheerful Giving event this year,” Crystal said. “I just wanted to give back because I know how it feels.”
Crystal tells Merced Daily she’s a former drug addict who started experimenting with drugs at age 11. Crystal tells Merced Daily she was in a group home for more than a year as a teenager and award of the court till age 18. When Crystal was older she checked into a women’s shelter due to domestic abuse. Crystal started to change her life around when she lost her children to the welfare system. She checked-in at New Beginnings Sober Living Home to recover.
Crystal is now completely clean of all drugs and works for Merced County as a parent partner helping other parents navigate the child welfare system. She now has custody of all 5 of her children.
She’s been clean since October 10, 2013.
Crystal would like everyone to know that recovery is possible.
