Helping Hands Turns 50, and the Festival of Trees Still Runs on Its Thrift Store

What does a black-tie gala with a country band have in common with a secondhand rack on Williams Street?

At Rockwall's Festival of Trees the answer is the merchandise. When Helping Hands of Rockwall County marks its Golden Anniversary at the Hilton Dallas/Rockwall Lakefront on Nov. 13 and 14, the runway clothes, the holiday market and a good share of the shopping all trace back to donations given to the nonprofit's thrift store and Boutique. That has been true for as long as the festival has existed. It also matches how the organization began 50 years ago, with volunteers taking things one household no longer needed and getting them to another household that did.

The Trunk of a 1976 Ford Maverick

Helping Hands dates its founding to 1976. It credits Bob Reeves, then pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Rockwall, and Claudette Johnson as co-founders, working alongside volunteers.

The organization's own origin story is about as local as a founding story gets. Volunteers started by collecting Christmas gifts for children in the community. After a house in town burned, they began gathering household goods and clothing too, and early operations ran out of the trunk of a 1976 Ford Maverick. The donor society Helping Hands runs today is named after that car.

The Christmas gifts and the donated goods from that first year both lasted. According to the Helping Hands history timeline, the Christmas Toy Drive that began in 1976 served more than 1,000 children in 2019, with four toys each plus stocking stuffers. The donated household goods led to a storefront.

Fifty Years of Addresses

The organization's growth can be traced through its buildings. Its published timeline marks each step:

1. 1976. Helping Hands is co-founded under Bob Reeves and Claudette Johnson.
2. 1980. The Helping Hands Thrift Store opens.
3. 1989. Margo Nielsen becomes executive director.
4. 1992. The Reeves Center opens, with the Thrift Store, Food Pantry and Assistance & Referral sharing the first floor.
5. 2000. The Health Center of Helping Hands opens.
6. 2005. Helping Hands moves into the former Lakeside Church of Christ campus.
7. 2010. The first Festival of Trees weekend is held at the Hilton, led by Senior Philanthropy Director Melody Hail.
8. 2015. Jon Bailey becomes President and CEO.
9. 2018. The Boutique moves and expands into Building A.
10. 2025. The Reeves and Johnson Campus opens.

A Herald-Banner retrospective from the 40th anniversary followed the same path from 102 S. First Street to a Washington Street campus. The thrift store has been part of every stage since 1980. In the 1992 Reeves Center it shared a floor with the food pantry. Today the Thrift Store and Boutique sit at 950 Williams Street, and the food pantry and Health Center are next door at 990 Williams Street.

The newest campus, named for both co-founders, opened in 2025. At the festival the year before, the Herald-Banner reported, Helping Hands unveiled a new logo ahead of the building's completion, and Bailey linked the two:

"This new building represents hope, enabling us to better serve the needs of Rockwall's growing community."

What the Runway Is Wearing

The Friday luncheon and style show is where the thrift store is most visible. On the Festival of Trees event page, Helping Hands describes the format as a keynote speaker followed by a runway "filled with fashions from The Helping Hands Thrift Store and Boutique," with local community leaders acting as the models.

So the clothes on the Hilton runway are donated pieces, selected from the same racks anyone can browse on Williams Street. The models are recognizable people from around town. Texas Health Rockwall presents this year's luncheon on Friday, Nov. 13, and speaker Christine Cashen gives the keynote.

The Herald-Banner's recap of the 2024 luncheon, presented that year by Texas Health Presbyterian Rockwall, says guests watched the fashion show and also shopped "major discounts for amazing finds at the boutique." The runway and the store run side by side.

The Room at the Hilton Anyone Can Walk Into

The luncheon and gala need tables or tickets. The Boutique Holiday Pop-up Store needs neither. Helping Hands lists it as open and free to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Hilton on The Harbor.

Helping Hands hasn't posted what this year's pop-up will stock. Past years give a fair idea. The Herald-Banner described the 2024 market as showcasing "hundreds of unique holiday items, home decor, furniture, jewelry, clothing, wreaths and trees." That list nearly matches what the year-round thrift operation carries. Its own page lists clothing, furniture, household goods, jewelry, kitchen items, antiques, books and media, with the Boutique side focused on high-end collectibles and boutique-style finds.

The decorated trees that gave the festival its name have changed over the years. Blue Ribbon News covered the fifth festival in 2014 and described a tree-decorating contest and a live auction. Participants that year included the Rockwall-Heath Early Childhood PTA, AMICA of Rockwall, Bella's House, Expressions Home Décor & Custom Floral, National Charity League Class of 2020 and Worker Bee Studios. By 2023, Blue Ribbon News reported, decorated trees and wreaths were displayed and sold alongside a live auction. At the 2024 gala, presented by Rob and Sara Whittle and Timpa Law Firm, guests could buy trees and wreaths, bid on items such as two diamond bracelets donated by Willis Fine Jewelers, and keep shopping the Boutique of Helping Hands into the evening.

The Boutique was part of that 2024 weekend from start to finish. It opened the festival as a holiday market, sold discounted finds during the luncheon, and was still open during the gala. For a household planning December, the free hours are a chance to shop wreaths, décor and furniture from the same donations that pay for the charity's work.

This year's festival is also earlier. The Herald-Banner's recap of the 15th festival, which the 2010 start date places in 2024, gives its dates as Nov. 22 and 23. The 2026 dates fall a full week further from Thanksgiving, which leaves more time to decorate with whatever comes home from the Hilton.

Where the Weekend Leads After November 14

The festival has been Helping Hands' largest fundraiser since that first weekend in 2010. Several programs run out of the Williams Street campus:

• Client Assistance offers referrals plus financial or in-kind help with utilities, shelter, food, clothing, furniture and household goods, within the service boundaries Helping Hands lists. Some help is by appointment.
• The food pantry gives families food meant to last 14 days and works with the North Texas Food Bank and retail and community donors. Its page, updated in July 2026, says more than 500,000 pounds of food went out last year.
• The Health Center at 990 Williams Street, Suite A, offers primary care on weekdays with Saturday appointments, sliding-scale rates for qualifying Rockwall County residents, and acceptance of Medicaid, Medicare and many private plans.
• The Thrift Store and Boutique at 950 Williams Street are open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sundays.

The furniture and clothing listed under Client Assistance are the same kinds of goods volunteers carried in that Maverick in 1976. In 50 years, the trunk has turned into a thrift store, a pantry, a clinic and a campus named for the two founders. Each November, a ballroom on The Harbor fills with donated goods for two days, and the doors to the shopping room stay open to anyone from 10 to 5.

Anyone who wants to buy a luncheon table, sponsor the gala, or reach the organizers can email [email protected] or call Jennifer Beasley at 972-771-1655, ext. 106.

Fifty years of Helping Hands is a Rockwall story, and The Agency Rockwall is proud to cover the institutions that make this lakeside community what it is. If the holiday season has you thinking about what your own home on the lake is worth, request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll give it the same attention to detail the Festival of Trees brings to the Hilton each November.