Today I am taking a moment to Thank God for all the wonderful people who donate their time and energy helping others. Everywhere you look this time of year you see angels among us. Some are ringing bells for Salvation Army, some are putting together baskets for the needy, some are buying extra toys so all children can enjoy Christmas this year, some are collecting coats and mittens so others don't have to be cold this year and still others adopt entire families so that their Holidays can be Joyful.
I am especially grateful for volunteers today because there is no way I could accomplish what I want without them. People are so generous...it makes your heart sing. Seventeen employees at the local Costco store donated the turkeys they were given to our food pantry. That was over half of the turkeys we needed!! In addition, Costco, provided us with $125 in gift cards to use in the store which provided for 30 gallons of milk and 30 lbs. of butter for the baskets. Then our local military Commissary provided us with $100 in gift cards and tons of coupons so that we could get the remaining products we needed for the baskets. All the employees there joined in to help us find cases of food, get it into checkout and load it into our cars. My heart was really singing by the end of the shopping spree yesterday.
Today I had numerous people show up to help put the baskets together.
Many hands make light work.
And many of them have agreed to come back on Monday for distribution not to mention I got several phone calls from members of my parish asking what they could do to help and coming in on Monday also. And the financial support!!! It is unreal how many checks and food donations are coming in. What a God send. We were just wondering what we were going to do as our shelves were getting pretty bare when WHAM the donations started coming in and after we are done with these Thanksgiving Baskets it will probably take my people who volunteer on a steady basis to help in the food pantry a couple of days to stock the shelves with all the extras. God is good....All the time.
This evening we are going out to dinner with friends, including Rob Green, whose band volunteered to play in "Tunes for Toys" at a local American Legion Post to benefit "Toys for Tots". As I said, There Are Angels Among Us. I think Alabama may have said that too. LOL
This is wonderful. This is the reason for the season, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt sure is Paula!
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