’Tis the Season ... for Giving
Across the country, councils and locals pitch in to help those in need.
The holiday season can be the saddest time of year for those in need. That’s why AFSCME members — who serve their communities during the work day — put in extra hours as volunteers to help their neighbors.
Sharing Warmth
New England can be a cold place this time of year, particularly for women who have been the victims of domestic violence.
Connecticut Council 4 is helping to bring warmth into the lives of these women by participating in the Sweaters for Sisters campaign.
The project, begun in 1995 by the Hartford chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), collects sweaters for residents at the Prudence Crandall Center for Women, a shelter for battered women in New Britain. This year CLUW members decided to expand their efforts in order to provide sweaters to more centers across the state. CLUW Chapter Pres. Alice Armstrong, a recently retired member of AFSCME Local 355, asked Council 4 Exec. Director Mike Ferucci for council support and he agreed enthusiastically.
Council 4 members collected hundreds of sweaters from friends and family which will be delivered to the centers before Thanksgiving.
Combating Hunger
Imagine not being able to feed your family. This nightmare is an unfortunate reality for some families in the Toledo area where AFSCME Local 7 (Council 8) is working to provide food for the needy. Members of the local work in a variety of fields for the city of Toledo including forestry, street maintenance, health department, parks and recreation, water and sewers, and as 911 operators.
The project began over a decade ago when the local’s Women’s Committee — which happens to be more than half male — provided just five families with enough staples, meat, fresh vegetables and fruit to last a week. Last year, the local provided a week’s worth of food items for 111 families.
When the program first started, members paid for the food donations out of their own pockets. But in order to expand the number of families served, the local solicited vendors — the local milk company, local grocers, plus large and small corporations — and sponsored two raffles and a pancake breakfast.
Spreading Cheer
“It takes a village” would definitely apply to the Christmas Sharing program started in 1990 by members of AFSCME Local 3768 (Council 31) in the Village of Glendale Heights, Ill. — along with the village board.
Local families fill out a wish list for the holidays, identifying toys, foods and other needs. After they are collected and reviewed, the lists are placed inside mittens hung on a tree in a central office. Members and residents pull a mitten from the tree and set out to fulfill the wish list.
The local provides a total of around $12,000 in goods and services to as many as 85 needy families every year. Contributions come from the local, from individual members, residents, village board members, and from gift certificates from local vendors. Community groups like Neighborhood Watch help wrap the toys and prepare the food baskets.
In Champaign-Urbana, Ill., University of Illinois Employees/Local 3700 (Council 31) helps raise money for the Crisis Nursery, a non-profit organization that fights child abuse. Crisis Nursery provides emergency care for children age 5 and younger when their families experience a crisis or stressful situation that may put children at risk. The Crisis Nursery is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and uses professional child care workers with trained volunteers.
Every year the Crisis Nursery sponsors the Holiday Shop, a place where children can purchase gifts with the help of adult volunteers. Local 3700 members serve as “Santa’s helpers,” guiding the children toward appropriate gifts — valued from 50 cents to $5.00 — while parents wait patiently outside. When Mom and Dad open their gifts, they’ll be surprised — but Dad won’t get a brooch and Mom won’t get aftershave. All profits are donated to the Crisis Nursery.
Super Santa
In Tioga County, N.Y., needy children can thank Local 854, Civil Service Employees Association/ AFSCME Local 1000 for their gifts during the holidays. The local has run the county Christmas League for the last four years, providing new toys for children age 12 and younger.
Operating year round, the league raises up to $3,000 annually from donations, events and raffles. New toys are also collected at several locations. In July, the local begins purchasing and wrapping gifts. Applications from needy families begin arriving in September, and the gifts are delivered before Christmas by members of area volunteer fire companies.
“We want to brighten the Christmas of low-income families,” explains Local 854 Pres. Lynn Wool. “We want to make sure that when Christmas morning comes, there is a toy under every tree.”
Killing the Chill
It’s called the Sweaters ’N Sox campaign but over the years this annual charity drive by Local 101 (Council 57) in San Jose, Calif., has grown into much, much more.
Carolyn Johnson acknowledges that local charity/collection agencies would receive lots of shorts and swimsuits in the late fall — useless items in the winter weather of this chilly Northern California city. Johnson is vice president of the Municipal Employees Federation chapter within Local 101. The local, which represents San Jose city workers and employees throughout Santa Clara County, began a few years back advertising for donations of sweaters and for money to purchase new socks for the needy. As word of the drive spread, the local began receiving carloads of clothing, toys and personal hygiene products. Individuals and companies donated hundreds of dollars for the purchase of new items. Today the local collects as much as $6,000 in cash donations in addition to clothing and other items.
Johnson explains that a different charity is chosen to receive the donations every year. “We feel that we want to give back to the community that supports us so well as city workers,” she says.
Light Up a Life
A Christmas tree unlike any other stands in the Prince Kuhio Plaza shopping center on the Big Island of Hawaii. The ornaments on the tree represent donations from holiday shoppers for the Hilo Hospice Light Up A Life program. The hospice provides support and care for individuals suffering from terminal illnesses during the final stage of their lives.
Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA)/ AFSCME Local 152 volunteer their time to staff the donation booth. “A lot of people come up to us and tell us that they want to make a donation because the hospice helped their family members when they needed it,” says B.J. Soriano, chairperson of the HGEA Hawaii Island Division’s Community Action Committee.
“Everyone knows the good that the hospice does,” she says, “so they don’t hesitate to give us $10 or even more.” The fundraiser took in $10,000 last year.
Although it is a busy time of year for union members, they’re glad to help out. “Through the hospice we just feel like we’re helping out at the most difficult time in people’s lives,” Soriano explains.
