Recap: Holiday Community Service Day

Yesterday was our 2019 Holiday Community Service Day…and we had a blast!

The air was chilly when our force of 50 volunteers arrived on location at the Lausche Building in Columbus, but it didn’t take long for us to warm up! We were impressed with the Salvation Army’s organization. After trying on a Salvation Army apron, all hands were immediately put to work with each volunteer assigned a special task, from unloading boxes of frozen Butterball turkeys to running carts full of food & toys out to be loaded into cars.

Our shift lasted two and a half hours, and during that time we helped serve over 500 families!

We highly recommend the Salvation Army’s “Cheer” program to those looking to volunteer during the holidays. It was such an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. The families and individuals who came through were grateful and kind, thanking the volunteers and wishing us “Happy Holidays” & “Merry Christmas”. Smiles and seasons greetings were exchanged, and we were able to make friends with other volunteers from our community as well!

Thank you to all our members and volunteers who were able to come out and help spread a little cheer this holiday season. It was great to see so many faces we’ve seen at other events, and to see some new faces, too.

We had a great time afterwards at the Local Cantina with drinks, chips & salsa, and good conversation. Yet another successful Happy Hour networking event!

Below is a letter we received from the Salvation Army:

Dear Salvation Army Christmas Volunteer,

Thank you for being a part of The Salvation Army’s tradition of bringing joy and hope to families at Christmas time. The phenomenal successes of The Salvation Army’s Christmas programs each year are a reflection of the ever-increasing dedication and enthusiasm of the volunteers who donate their time and talents to our programs.  All said, 2,115 volunteers helped make the Salvation Army’s Christmas Cheer and Adopt-a-Family programs a success.

The Christmas Cheer program is by far the largest undertaking The Salvation Army has each year.  6,481 families in need were provided new toys for their children and food for their family during the fun-filled and very hectic 2 ½ day period that required extensive set up, run and tear down.

The Adopt a Family program helped nearly 300 families with unique circumstances who had fallen on hard times.  Volunteer help in unloading and organizing all the gifts from the sponsors and loading them in the recipient’s vehicles was instrumental for the program’s success.

The Angel Tree Toy Drives provided thousands upon thousands of toys which were essential for the Christmas Cheer program.  Volunteer help collecting and unloading these gifts was essential.

We could not have done it without you, one of our incredible volunteers!  Thank you for your generosity, flexibility and enthusiasm!  We hope you will join us again next year.

Thanks and blessings to you in 2020!

Jill Zelle

Christmas Cheer Volunteer Coordinator
The Salvation Army in Central Ohio

Looking Forward to Next Year

To our Members: We look forward to seeing you again next at our Member Appreciation event January 29th – mark your calendars! This will be a members-only event to say thank you for all you do. Details to come!

To those thinking of joining SBC: There’s still time to join in 2019 so you will go down in history as part of our Founding Members group. The $250 to join is currently going towards our 2020 scholarship fund.

Once again, thank you to everyone who came out yesterday, we look forward to seeing you next year! We wish you and yours a warm & merry holiday season, and a very happy New Year!