The holidays are going to be much brighter for many children and their families thanks to the generosity of employees at our Austin, Columbus, Highland, and Tampa design centers. Check out the scoop!
Tampa Takes On Holiday Tent
Matt Poppell and Monica Del Real paint backdrops
The Tampa design center held its first Day of Service project December 3 volunteering at the Metropolitan Ministries’ Holiday Tent in Tampa for the afternoon. Metropolitan Ministries is a community organization formed by several churches and nonprofits to help Tampa’s less fortunate. The Holiday Tent was getting set up to serve nearly 30,000 families from three counties that come through this holiday season seeking food or holiday gifts for family members. After a quick orientation, the entire nine-member Tampa staff split into groups. One group helped build a table. The other group painted the walls and decorations, and moved stands for the toys. It was only one afternoon, but the folks at Metropolitan Ministries were overjoyed with the help we provided. The Holiday Tent is THE marquee outreach event for the organization. Many families are so appreciative of the time our team spent, and the company’s $1,000 donation to help provide gifts and food for families that might not otherwise enjoy Christmas this year. Overall, it was a great team effort!
One mother who visited the tent exclaimed “I’m thankful for the opportunity to be served by such generous people. What you all do for the community is phenomenal. Thank you for all that you do.”
Check presentation for $1,000
Austin Employees Help Trim Angel Tree
Angel Tree Austin logo
Ricardo Zamarripa and Heather Sulaica took their volunteering talents to the Salvation Army Angel Tree Warehouse in Austin to sort gifts for their Angel Tree program. Ricardo and Heather picked out gifts and clothes for underprivileged children and sorted them into gift bags. They also arranged clothes into different bins for distribution. Angel Tree is a Salvation Army program offered throughout many US cities that ensures needy children and their families will receive gifts during the holiday season.
Columbus Supports Gifts and Food Drive
Columbus staffers shopped online and braved the malls to fulfill Christmas wish lists of 25 children, ages 18 months to 15 years old submitted to the St. Vincent Family Center’s Adopt A Family Program. Employees were savvy shoppers to get the best bargains while spending $100 on each child. Employees also participated in a construction industry food drive for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, in cooperation with Pepper Construction. Employees donated food, like items in the photo below, and American Structurepoint donated a $500 check to the food bank. The entire campaign donated nearly 255,000 meals, pushing the 13-year total to over 493,000 meals donated.
Highland Provides Gifts for Head Start Agency
Highland employees provided presents for 19 children served by the Lake Ridge Head Start agency in Gary, Indiana. The Head Start Program promotes school readiness of children under age 5 from lower-income families through education, health, and social services. Most of the recipients are foster children who would not receive gifts this holiday season if not for the generosity of the Highland employees.