Home Depot, Christian Center Distribute 300 Winter Care Packages
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The hallmark orange Home Depot buckets will take on a new meaning for those in need this holiday season.
The Christian Center and the Home Depot Foundation joined forces to donate more than 300 of the distinctive buckets containing winter clothing and personal hygiene items to local veterans and homeless individuals.
On Sunday, an assembly line of around 40 volunteers stocked the care packages at Pittsfield's Home Depot. They will stay within the county, which currently has about 1,000 people without shelter.
Supplies such as socks, hats, gloves, and coats are vital for the cold months. The items were donated by local retailers and will go to the Christian Center for distribution and are valued at about $12,000.
This project is part of the hardware retailer's Operation Surprise campaign focused on giving back.
"Our district, we like every store to try to get one project a quarter, right now we have going on what we call our Operation Surprise, so every year between Veterans Day and the end of the year, we have every store to either donate money or do a project for the community," Home Depot spokesman Andy Shaw said.
"Ideally it would be veterans or any community organization we partner with, so we'll do hundreds across the company this year, we actually donated recently $1,000 to Soldier On and this project is about $12,000."
Shaw added that the monetary donation is on top of the team who contributed a couple of hours to make it happen.
Home Depot employs more than 35,000 veterans and military spouses across the country. The Home Depot Foundation has contributed $400 million for veterans' causes since 2011 and renovated more than 50,000 veterans' homes and facilities.
The Christian Center has been one of the leading local organizations in addressing homelessness. In February, it debuted a warming shelter that offers housing-insecure folks a place to stay in the hours that ServiceNet's shelter at the former St. Joseph's High School is closed.
Tags: donations, good news, holiday story,
