Every holiday season, Reeds Ferry picks a local charity to assist with. In the past we have done very large donations to different local food pantries, as posted in previous blogs. The Company will match the donations the employees bring in and with almost 100 employees, we would fill those pantry shelves quickly!
This year, we decided to sponsor children in the Nashua Soup Kitchen’s Holiday Gifts program. At the start, it was decided employees would sponsor 30 children and the Company would sponsor 30 children. Each child needed a shirt, pair of pants, pair of shoes and one “wish gift”. There would be other items available to donate if we wanted, such as socks, winter gear, etc.
Our Director of Operations, Laurie Blanchette, received the list of children, their sizes, and items. She posted them on post-it’s on her office door so employees could come and grab an item to purchase for a child. So many employees decided to sponsor a child (purchase all the items they needed) that she had to dip into the 30 children that she had put aside for the Company to sponsor so that she had enough for each employee who wanted to participate! She reached back out to the Nashua Soup Kitchen to get more children so the Company could still match what the employees were doing. It was so great to see the participation from the employees!
As employees started to bring items in, they were stacked in two offices. It was so fun to see all the outfits, shoes and toys that everyone picked out! Laurie did a great job of keeping it all organized so she knew what items belonged to what child. Altogether, employees and the Company sponsored 72 kids! Majority of the items were delivered on December 3rd with a drop off of any last-minute items coming in the following week.
The Nashua Soup Kitchen was so grateful for all the donations that were received! The children received new clothes, shoes, winter gear, toys, books, bicycles, electric scooters, diapers, highchairs and gift cards. Families were able to have holiday gifts that they otherwise would not have been able to afford. They also each received a large “goodie” bag full of essentials like laundry detergent, toilet paper and other toiletries. These items brought countless smiles and much joy to many local children!
The employees of Reeds Ferry really enjoyed picking out a specific child and getting items for them, it made it very personal, and we were very happy with the outcome. We look forward to continuing our yearly tradition of giving back to the community that we are in and are grateful for the opportunity.
