Several offices have been busy giving back during the past month or so — from food to gifts to necessities.
Athens
For the second year, CEC Athens sponsored children in need who are clients of The Children’s House/Child Advocacy Center (CHCAC). In her prior job, Billie DeMott organized Christmas giving trees for The Children’s House and she continues to do so here at CEC. The Children’s House sends a list of their wants and needs. Billie places tags on the office tree and the office team purchases their gifts. The office sponsored 3 children: a 7-year-old boy and 8- and 12-year-old girls. Billie is grateful for how fast the group responds as soon as the gift tags are available. The team hopes to volunteer at The Children’s House stuffing informational packets, painting, sprucing up the lawn, etc. in the future when it becomes an option again.
Pittsburgh
CEC Pittsburgh offered support to the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) for its annual Holiday Project program, which provides holiday gifts to vulnerable children (ranging from newborns to young adults) in families receiving DHS services related to child maltreatment and homelessness. Originally, individual and/or team sponsors were solicited to purchase gifts from the wish lists of 30 children. Due to an overwhelming employee response to the initial request, another 50 children were soon added to the effort, bringing the total to 80 children! As a guideline, DHS hopes to provide each child with a gift from his or her wish list. In many cases, CEC was able to fulfill the entire wish list of a sponsored child. DHS provided a pickup service for gifts. Emily Chiodo and Sue Nagel coordinated the effort, and a special shout-out goes to the office’s ecological and MIS practices for their light-hearted group competitions.
On Veteran’s Day, it was announced that the office would continue Jim Roberts’ tradition of donating to our veterans at Christmas. Gifts are separated into individual gift bags and given to those currently in the VA Hospital in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. This year, we’ll be dropping the gifts off with hospital staff on December 23, but we are looking forward to a time when we can once again personally deliver the gifts to each patient and visit with those who welcome the company. The Pittsburgh employees’ donations resulted in 79 gift bags, plus a couple boxes of donations for the commissary. It is likely our biggest year ever. Tom Maher, Mary Guinee, and Megan Ponzo coordinated the effort this year and were joined by Tom’s wife, Mary’s daughters and their cousin, Alison Clutter, Doug Clark, and Bryce Stahlman to help put the gift bags together.
St. Louis
During a Thanksgiving food drive in November, the office collected 3 drums of food: 2 went to the St. Louis Area Foodbank and one to the O.A.S.I.S. Food Pantry in St. Charles County. Considering that the St. Louis Area Foodbank noted that CEC had collected enough for 201 meals, the office likely was able to collect roughly 100 meals for O.A.S.I.S. Food Pantry…a total of about 360 lbs. of food.
In December, the office collected around $450 to purchase gifts and necessities for two local seniors:
- 2 presents for each (hats/sheet set for the gentleman and blanket/night gowns for the lady)
- 1 box of paper goods/cleaning products for each (including Clorox Wipes, bottles of Clorox/Lysol cleaning spray, dish soap, and laundry detergent pods)
- 1 box of personal hygiene products for each (including toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, hand soap. and body wash)
- 1 $50 gift card for food for each
Nashville
Thanks to our employees’ generous donations, CEC Nashville was able to sponsor three children from the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree organization: a 5-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old boy. A special thank you to Christine Guy-Baker and Emily Reed for coordinating this event as well as purchasing the items for delivery!
Post a Comment