For some of the volunteers Christmas really was in the air. Some volunteers spent the afternoon opening countless boxes filled with Christmas items and loading our shelves for the holiday season. These volunteers did a great job of making our store ready for the Christmas season, helping the Mission to have more items on display for one of our busiest times of the year. The Christmas spirit was not only found in the store but in our Outreach Department too. The holidays are one of our most exciting as well as hectic times in our Outreach Department because some of our largest events are held during this season. One of those events is our children's Christmas parties which are held at both our Owego and Waverly locations. At these events each child that attends is given a toy for Christmas, so as you may guess that means a lot of tape and wrapping paper. Our Lockheed Martin friends jumped right into the spirit and had a wonderful time helping us take on our massive wrapping challenge.
Our warehouse was also buzzing with active with the help of our Lockheed volunteers. Harrison worked with a number of volunteers to help teach them how we separate metals for our recycling project "Metal for Meals," and the volunteers hit the ground running. In addition the volunteers took on the task of cleaning under our dumpster just one of the tasks that we at the Mission seem to always run out of hours in the day to do. With the help of some of the Lockheed Martin employees we were able to help people dropping off donations unload much faster. For those of you who have seen our donation area parking lot you know it is always lively and we were so thankful for the extra helping hands.
Our volunteers did not mind getting dirty in the least, they were willing to help wherever they were needed. A large number of the volunteers worked in the our front, side and back gardens. This was far from an easy task with the size of the area they were clearing out and the seemly never ending amount of weeds. Also a bunch of volunteers help with hanging clothes in our warehouse, this is a wonderful help because now we have tons of clothing ready when we need to restock our racks. With Lockheed Martin's help our store now looks fantastic both inside and out.
We are so thankful to all of our volunteers, it truly is because of their help that the Tioga County Open Door Mission has been able to continue serving the community for over 45 years. We are a small hardworking staff but we always need the donation of time from giving hearts. With the help we receive from our volunteer, Mission employees are given those extra few hours in a day to develop new programs that helps the Mission meet the needs of more people in our community, and that is truly what motivates the Mission each and every day it opens its door. Thank you again Lockheed Martin and volunteers everywhere that give the gift of their time. God Bless.