Giving Back

Every holiday season I have the opportunity to participate in multiple charity type activities at my company in order to give back to our community (and to the world!). I love the holidays, and I feel very lucky to be as fortunate as I am in my life, but it breaks my heart to know not everyone thinks of the holidays as a “happy” time. Getting involved with charities in the community makes me feel like I’ve made a difference (no matter how little).

{Salvation Army Angel Tree}

 

Recently, we have established a monthly charity jeans day Friday (as long as you donate to the charity of the month you’re allowed to wear jeans on that particular Friday). Last month the charity was Degage Ministries which offers help to homeless and disadvantaged individuals in our community, everything from food for the hungry or a place to stay for women in crisis. This Friday we have our Charity Jeans Day Friday for the month of December, and we’ll be donating to the Salvation Army Angel Tree (GFS has been donating to this cause every holiday season for as long as I can remember).

 

A new one that I am hoping to get involved in is Cards for Hospitalized Kids. All you need to do is decorate a card with glitter, stickers, markers, etc, perhaps write a sweet (and uplifting) personalized message inside and viola. Once you send the cards to the organization they will take care of distributing them appropriately. Earlier this week I went to one of our Administrative Assistants to ask if she would help me get the word out about this cause and hopefully get the ok for GFS to host a card event soon.
 

{just a smidge of what my department alone contributed}

 

Also, every December GFS participates in Adopt-a-Family, an organization that matches families in need with specific donors or sponsors to provide tangible necessities. This is my FAVORITE thing to get involved in with my team because you are purchasing gifts from an actual families Christmas list, anything from diapers to socks to winter coats to toys. It is so much fun knowing the age and name of the children you are providing for and truly does warm my heart knowing that I will be putting a smile on their face this month.

 

What can I say, this fills my bucket ;)

 

P.S. All this BS about the world ending on 12/12/12… could have fooled me.

xx Meg