Sleeping Bags Being Collected for the Homeless

A woman in Burleson knows what she wants for Christmas: sleeping bags! They're not for her, though. Christy Woods is collecting them for the homeless.

"It's cold, and it's Christmas. I will do whatever I can to make someone warm on a very cold night," Woods told NBC 5.

Woods got the idea to collect sleeping bags after she and other members at Pathway Church in Burleson fed the homeless on Thanksgiving. "I asked, 'What is something you need out here that would make your life just a little easier today”? My constant answer was sleeping bags! That was enough for me,'" she wrote.

Woods started collecting bags on Dec. 2 with a goal of 200. She got immediate response from a group of women she trains with at CrossFit Burleson.

One of them was Jessica Davis, who saw Woods' post on Facebook.

"Daily, I scroll through Facebook and see everything from people’s babies and families to requests to help out for this cause or that, but when I read Christy’s post, I stopped. I was immediately pulled to the cause," Davis wrote in an email to NBC 5.

It pulled at Davis, in part, because of Woods' personal experience with living on the edge.

"Christy has been in recovery for three years. She struggled a lot not all so long ago, and 15 years ago she was homeless living in her car. This woman fights for her sobriety every single day. She battles internal demons that try to strip her of her worth. She is finding healing through giving back," she wrote.

Davis says being with the homeless on Thanksgiving Day "took me back to a time and place that I had long forgotten," she said. She battled alcohol and drug addiction for 28 years but in recovery, she's found purpose.

"It’s said in recovery that 'You are suppose to give back the gift you have been given," she wrote. "I had help from  many people get me out of a terrible situation and believed in me and I’m eternally grateful."

The last few weeks has "made me realize that one small gesture, one single act of kindness can turn someone’s whole life around," Woods wrote. "My story is full of pain, hurt, survival and yet beautiful love, hope and joy."

Donations of sleeping bags can be dropped off at CrossFit Burleson, 317 Southwest Wilshire, Burleson, TX 76028.