‘Tis the season for giving!
Our region’s smallest chapter of the American Red Cross, the
Northern South Carolina chapter, truly embraced the Christmas spirit this year by
deciding to adopt four families for the holidays as a chapter – one for each
county they serve.
Headquartered in Rock Hill, SC, the Northern SC chapter
covers York, Lancaster, Chester, and Chesterfield Counties.
Volunteers, staff, and board members came together for their
first annual Adopt-a-Family program. Working with Pilgrim’s Inn, a local
homeless shelter and daycare center, Red Crossers bought gifts for needy
families with members ranging from 4-28 years old. Pilgrim’s Inn will
anonymously deliver the gifts to the families on Christmas morning. Our
dedicated volunteers ran this venture from start to finish – from raising the
money, to shopping for the gifts, to then delivering them to Pilgrim’s Inn.
The Red Cross also wanted to bring good tidings and some
tasty treats to the children being helped by Pilgrim’s Inn. One of the
chapter’s seasoned disaster volunteers, Ray Gannon, regularly helps Santa be in
more than one place at the same time, entertaining children during the holiday
season wearing a signature red suit.
With his trusty elves, Santa “flew” one of the Red Cross Emergency Response
Vehicles (ERV) to the facility during the children’s lunch hour to spread
cheer. Sauntering with a jolly pep in his step down the colorful hallway, ol’ Saint
Nick shook his jingle bells, letting out a commanding “Ho! Ho! Ho!”
Escorted by
Pilgrim’s Inn staff, Santa made his way through each classroom one by one, bringing
with him pure merriment. The children jumped with joy as Claus distributed the
sugary confections from his red bag. The children had plenty of hugs for their jolly visitor.
The chapter also donated 20 cases of bottled water to augment the Pilgrim's Inn food pantry.
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