It is part of our company’s desire is to reach out to our local community. With the generosity of our Spacesaver community, we are able to support community service projects through out the year.
Our first project was again to join forces with The Neil Dvoskin Fund to support the Toys For Tots sponsored by the United States Marines Corps and a needy local Montgomery County Family. We were able to provide $800 towards this worthy cause. The donations let the The Neil Dvoskin Fund hit the toy stores and fill as many shopping carts as they can with new toys for children of all ages. The Marines wrap and deliver the toys to the appropriate families in our community in time for Christmas. The goal is to have every child in the county have at least one gift for Christmas. Statistics indicate that 300,000 toys are required to fill this need in Montgomery County.
Our second project was to provide the Highland Elementary School located in Silver Spring, MD with stationary shelving for three reading and math resource areas. Our contact, Megan Murphy, was very grateful and said that everything was “perfect”. Special thanks to James Farley, Sam Mookung, Harley Divelbliss, Jose Aguilar, Alfredo Videla, Andrew Long and crew for helping out.
For our third project, Spacesaver employees collected 127.5 pounds and a $50 donation for Manna. Manna is experiencing a 19.5% increase in the number of households receiving food. In just the first three months of 2008, 1,000 additional families required help compared to the same time frame in 2007. 6,479 families came through their doors from January through March of this year.
Two years ago, they distributed 15 backpacks a week to needy children. Today, they provide 500 children a week with Smart Sacks backpacks.
Smart Sacks is Manna Food Center's innovative program to fight childhood hunger. Each Friday, Smart Sacks provides hungry elementary school students in Montgomery County with 10-12 nutritious and kid-friendly foods for the weekend in backpacks handed to them at their local school. On Monday the backpacks are returned and refilled for the next weekend. (Manna Food Center is experiencing a twenty percent increase in the number of families turning to Manna for food assistance.)
Above: Installation at The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in mid-March, 2008.