His calling

Sporting News, The, Dec 23, 1996 by Jim Dent

Experience has taught some hard lessons. Labels must tee removed from clothing that is earmarked for children. "If we don't cut out the labels, the parents will return the clothes and get money for booze or for the (gambling) riverboats over in Louisiana," Merrill says. "I have to sand off the brand names of the bikes so the parents won't take them back to get money."

Why has this calling become Merrill's obsession?

"Because his heart is this big," Carolyn says, holding an imaginary basketball. "And because he didn't get much when he was a kid at Christmas."

Merrill grew up in the dust bowl of western Oklahoma in the little town of Cloud Chief. The cotton farming ran hot and cold. There were years when there were no gifts under the family tree. One spring, a tornado blew away most of the Merrill home. It left behind a two-room shotgun house. "l was six years old, and I remember my dad standing over us," Merrill says, "trying to hold the walls of the house up with his hands."

No one expects Merrill to forget the taste of helping people soon. Each year, there are more volunteers and more donations. The result is more families getting help. The hard times around Hooks may not end soon. But Merrill isn't giving up.

"I truly believe this is my ministry," he says. "I've often said that if I didn't give, or if I didn't try, then something bad would happen to me. Why do I help? Because it keeps my feet on the ground.

"A lot of times, I 11 walk into one of those homes and the mama will go to bawling, and shell say, `I just told the kids we wouldn't be having Christmas and then you show up.' that's something that you'll never forget."

For the final game of the Hooks High School football season, Merrill was asked to substitute for the school's public address announcer. His spotter and sidekick that night was Billy Sims, who was visiting Hooks for a few days.

"You know," Merrill says. "Even ol' Billy's got his feet back on the ground these days."

With a little help from the umpire, the same can be said for a lot of forks around Hooks.