Most of us know Vikings legend Cris Carter for dazzling us on the field with plays and touchdowns as a wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings from 1990 to 2001. In total, Carter had 1,101 catches for 13,899 yards and scored 130 touchdowns in his 16 years in the NFL. He was selected to play in eight Pro Bowls and won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award.
What many of us don’t know about this Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver is that Carter was also on the receiving end of much-needed help as a child.
“My mom had seven kids before the age of 25,” Carter explained. “The Salvation Army was there for us.”
On Saturday, Dec. 14, Carter shook hands and took pictures with local families at the Xfinity store in Eagan as part of the Stuff the Sleigh charity toy drive, a partnership between the Salvation Army, Comcast and KSTP-TV.
The holiday help comes at a good time, as many Minnesota families are struggling to pay for food, let alone gifts. According to a 2024 report from Greater Twin Cities United Way, 36% or 834,343 households in Minnesota live paycheck to paycheck. This number includes 233,779 households in poverty. Additionally, data from the Salvation Army shows child poverty more than doubled from 2021 to 2022.
“Sometimes it’s food, sometimes it’s clothes, sometimes it’s spiritual. Those are all the things we got from the Salvation Army when I was a kid,” Carter said. “So, my partnership with them is based on what they did for me.”
As part of the Stuff the Sleigh campaign, hundreds of toys have been collected at 15 Xfinity store locations throughout the Twin Cities. The toys will be distributed to local families in need, specifically infants to teens aged 14.
To celebrate the campaign, the Xfinity store in Eagan decked out in purple and invited families and staff to meet and take photos with Carter, who was in town for the Vikings Monday Night game against the Chicago Bears.
“To hear him (Carter) talk about paying it forward because of the services he got when he was a kid, that’s really special,” said Stacey Nelson-Kumar, director of community impact at Comcast. “This is our first time doing Stuff the Sleigh, and it has been a resounding success.”
A large barrel in the Eagan store was overflowing with toys. Nelson-Kumar says the bins are sometimes emptied twice a day at each of the stores, reflecting the generosity of the community. The Salvation Army is one of the largest providers of toys to children who may not otherwise receive a gift during the holidays.
The Salvation Army set the need at 16,000 toys for Twin Cities children this year. The organization describes on its website how the gifts benefit people like Jonathan, a recipient last year and St. Paul resident with two young daughters living on limited income after his hours were cut on his construction job. “Now we can put something under the tree so they can wake up on Christmas morning with a smile on their face,” Jonathan said.
Carter added that the goal is letting kids know there are people out there who care about them. “I’m just trying to make sure other young people can reach their destination in life the way I was able to,” Carter said. “We’re going to do exceptional things through them. Even though they have adversity, they can still reach the best version of themselves.”