Akron Life December 2022

On a blustery 10-degree day in December 2020, families lined Kenmore Boulevard, waiting for up to two hours, some without warm clothing to bundle in. “That’s how people are very much in need of stuff,” says Kenny Lambert, the now-32-year old founder of Just A Dad From Akron, who organized its first holiday gift giveaway. With a dyed-red mohawk and just a few of his 100-plus tattoos visible, Lambert passed out hats, gloves and blankets to some people in line, talking to as many as possible, all while carrying his then-3-year-old daughter, Amelia. She’s the reason he’s Just A Dad From Akron — both literally and figuratively — as he started the apparel company that does commu nity outreach events for Christmas, Halloween, Father’s Day, back to school and more after he finished treatment for drug and alcohol addic tion, with his daughter as his driving force. “I feel like God gave me a daughter,” Lambert says. “That’s how this all started — the inspiration behind it, how I got sober, how I have a life today.” Lambert refers to his time in addiction as his “past life,” and the change has been significant. His work, focused on Kenmore, has received great community response, including 1,500 people attending the premiere of the docu mentary about Just A Dad, “The Movement,” at the Akron Civic Theatre in October. Now accustomed to running free community events instead of self-described “running the streets,” Lambert and other volunteers passed out presents wrapped in festive red, white and green paper to 200 diverse families at the first gift giveaway. Community members donated gifts, including one who dropped off $500 worth of toys and others who wheeled more than 10 tricycles and bicycles up to a barebones Kenmore storefront decorated with gold tinsel garland that later opened as Just A Dad From Akron in 2021. Lambert gave a

stack of three presents to a woman wrapped in a blanket, and when the last people reached the storefront — an 8-year-old and 10-year-old whose parents dropped them off — he and the team filled their arms with the remaining bags of toys. He’s happy to take away some of the stress of holiday gift-giving from families who can’t afford it. He grew up in Kenmore, a neighbor hood where the median household income was about $13,000 lower than the state median, accoding to 2010 census data and the city of Akron. Parents struggling to afford presents is something Lambert saw firsthand as a kid. “We never really had much. It was, for Christmas, a heads-up, like, Hey, we’re not going to have Christmas presents unless God pro vides a way, ” Lambert says. “Those mothers or dads or whoever’s out there … to give them some relief … and give them a Christmas — that alone, it’s priceless.”

27

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 | a k r o n l i f e . c o m