The Following Years
The fourth season of Happy Holidays Giving Trees is approaching, and some modifications to the program have been made. In the second year, employees were allowed to buy any gift they wanted for the children, rather than limiting themselves to fitness items. The shelter also provided a list of items that the children needed. If people bought items that were on a certain child’s wish list, a tag was attached to the gift so it was easily identified by the shelter staff when the presents were dropped off. So many children were on the list in 1995 that a paper tree on a bulletin board near the artificial pine tree was needed to accommodate all the tags. That year, gifts for almost 70 children were provided. One of our divisions that had ownership in a motion picture company provided each child with a cassette tape soundtrack from a popular kid’s movie. (more…)