GIVERS
Sanford ’s SANTA Jim Annis crafts year-round so that no child goes without a toy by MIRANDA EVON photography by S.P. MURRAY
J
im Annis remembers Christmas mornings as a child with no toys underneath the Christmas tree. “I grew up in a poor family, and I never got toys on Christmas,” says Annis. “So now I make toys for children who might not get anything either.” Some may call him a real-life Santa Claus, but to this Army veteran, he’s just
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a country boy who grew up in Petoskey, Michigan, and now makes wooden toys in his workshop in Sanford, North Carolina. At 81 years old, Annis has been crafting wooden toys for children for nearly 50 years. Around Christmastime, he devotes his time to the Salvation Army of Lee County. Whether it’s dancing with the
children through their Joy for Others at Yuletide program, painting wooden trucks and cars with veterans at Veterans Administration Hospital in Fayetteville or working alongside local firefighters at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, Annis never goes emptyhanded. He is always toting a box of toys, filled to the brim, giving them out to children or those in need. The Art & Soul of Raleigh
