Midway through the year’s final month, Mother Nature seems to be in the holiday spirit. The sun hangs down over Southeast Washington, D.C., like an ornament, and the temperature has risen above 60 degrees. Collections of holiday lights and teenagers taking advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon line the sidewalks as cars glide down Elvans Road. Nestled on the side of the winding street, volunteers can be found leaving their cars behind in the parking lot and heading inside with bags of food, presents and anything else that can bring a smile to a child’s face on the 25th of the month.
“We’re just trying to provide a great experience for the holidays,” Darius Jones says as his grin widens and volunteers pile donations and gifts upon the tables in the room next to him.
A founder of XOA, an all-encompassing, community-centric lifestyle brand, Darius Jones is a Washington, D.C. native determined to bring joy to those in his hometown during the holiday season. Rooted in the importance of community collaboration, Jones has teamed up with Martha’s Table, a nonprofit fighting food insecurity through philanthropy and education, to host Christmas With XOA. Over the course of eight hours, Jones and his teammates at Christmas With XOA provided gifts and memorable holiday experiences to more than 200 families across the city.
“We just thought this would be a great opportunity to give back to the city. We’ve been doing this yearly since I started XOA,” Jones explained.
Jones is not alone in his mission to give back to the city he built his business in. Standing just a few steps away from him, a group of youth volunteers are led by Kirk Keys of The Creative School, a nonprofit empowering kids to reach higher levels of personal and communal well-being. Around the corner, comedian, entrepreneur and community leader Red Grant and Beyond The Block, a innovative program designed to instill high levels of self-esteem among youth seeking to achieve their full potential, are stepping in to provide assistance where needed.
“The biggest thing is collaboration. A lot of us do things individually instead of as a team or a group. [We can] reach out to those who we see are doing great things already and just try to collaborate or start the conversation. Once the conversation starts, we can start putting things on paper and develop a plan,” Jones said.
Placing importance on collaboration has created positive outcomes for those around him. XOA teamed up with Kirk Keys and The Creative School to host a Back To School Drive last August, providing kids with clothes and sneakers for their first day back in class. Equally important, their latest collaboration addresses an issue plaguing communities within the District and beyond — Christmas debt. A 2021 study found that nearly one in five adults in the U.S. may go into debt trying to get their children the best gift possible. Furthermore, a 2023 study conducted by Wallet Hub found that 25% of Americans are in debt from Christmas gifts bought last year. Through the work of Keys, Grant, Jones and Martha’s Table, at least 200 families in Washington, D.C. will be able to avoid those problems this December. After all, Grant, Keys and Jones know the value of a great Christmas gift.
“The best holiday gift [I’ve] received has been clothes. Fashion has always been thing and clothes were always hard to come by. Layaway was a huge thing growing up. Being able to get those things on layaway was always a plus,” Jones reflected.
“The best Christmas gift I ever received was a Playstation. Coming up, I would to my friend’s house to play video games all the time. We would Bond 007 on Nintendo 64, but I couldn’t play any games in my house until I got that Playstation,” Kirk Keys added.
I was coming up going to my friend’s house playing video games all the time. Playing a Nintendo 64 Bond double oh seven otter that couldn’t ever do nothing myself in house though until I got that PlayStation once I got that PlayStation I need friends. Now you got online game, you can be integrated and play everybody online too. So but yeah, that PlayStation that was my go to I always remember that.
With the joy of Christmas gifts past in mind, Jones has plans to continue host holiday giveaways for years and years to come. In an ideal world, the XOA founder is hoping Washington, D.C., Prince George’s (PG) County, Montgomery County and other surrounding areas come together to bring joy to 300 more families than they were able to help out this year.
“I would love for Washington, D.C., PG County and Montgomery County to all come together for this because we’re all hurting in different ways. So, I think that we need to share the same burden. I think that we’re too individualistic. We’re doing too many things [apart from each other] instead of just collaborating,” Jones explained.
“Let’s just do it all together. I think this [event could be even bigger]. We can help out 500 families. That’s a huge goal [that we can] definitely reach.”
