I can't even begin to tell you the great feeling I had when it was all done. It was a mix between satisfaction and incredibly relief. It was a lot of stress, and I came to find that there are a lot of unreliable people that work here. Some people would sign up and then just not pick up their name/money, or they would not even care about what they were getting and just get a lot of lousy crap that wasn't even on the wish list. One person took the 80 dollars we gave her and got two t-shirts, and then put the rest on a $50 gift card to wal-mart. Are you kidding? Would it be that difficult to just spend that $50 and get a toy and some books? They were supposed to get two articles of clothing, two toys and a book, at least. If they make the money stretch farther then great, but at least get those items. There were a lot of people that had $6-$15 in change that they gave back. I don't know why they wouldn't just use that extra money and get something super cheap. OH WELL, what can you do?
Overall, it was such a great experience and I'm so glad that I was able to be such a big part of it. Knowing that we were able to bring Christmas to 142 kids that otherwise would go without this year is such a great feeling. I'm happy to work for a company that is so committed to helping the community. We are afterall a "family business" so to speak. Our mission is to connect families across distance and time, and that doesn't only mean through genealogy.
Here's a cool pic of the gifts gathered together in the lobby before they were picked up from the United Foster Care Foundation.
That is not even half of the gifts. Of the 142 kids we sponsored, 85 was for United Way families and were delivered directly to the families. So these are the gifts that go to 57 Foster Care kids. Pretty cool if you ask me.
2 comments:
Wow, I can't believe some people! The sub for santa reminds me of last year when we went shopping. It was so fun getting present for the kids! I can't believe it's been a year. Holy Crap!
What a rewarding experience you got to have! I agree with your frustrations...Obviously those people have never been in a position where they had little, so they had to appreciate EVERYTHING. Otherwise they would have taken this task more seriously and put more thought into what they were doing. That really irritates me! So I share in your frustration...I really do!
Do you remember when we, as a guard, helped the school with the sub for santa? Maybe you had already graduated...but I was lucky enough to deliver some of the gifts to some families. The looks on their grateful faces brought tears to my eyes. It forever changed me and I took my sub for santa assingments so much more seriously. There is nothing like trying to find the PERFECT gift to give someone that would otherwise get nothing...it is seriously the BEST thing ever! I think that you are very lucky to get this experience...maybe next year the 'gift card' person should be put in charge...I bet it would change them too. Sorry I didn't mean to write a novel...I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!
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