Local 722 does many things other than provide security and fairness for our jobs. We support endeavors such as asthma walks, breast cancer walks, voter registration, project harvest and most recently we sponsored a family from the local postal services Dear Santa program. We realize that the communities in which our members live are just as important as our members, and we must give back to our communities. We are also in the process of looking into sponsoring a neighborhood school.

As hard working people we know how hard it is to provide for our families, so we can only imagine how hard it is for those less fortunate than us. But, if we all come together to help one another, especially our youth (for they are the next generation of union workers) the world would be a much better place. The old wise saying “It takes a village to raise a child”, rings truer in today’s society than ever before.

Keeping this in mind, during the Christmas holiday’s Local 722 reached out to the community by sponsoring a needed family. Our local post office receive tons of Dear Santa letters from needy family and two of our Local 722 Executive Board members (Debra Davis CNMC and Orne’ Banks WHC) read through many letters and chose a family to assist. They chose the Fenwick family. A single mom with (5) five kids who’s ages ranged from 2 yrs to 11 yrs. The mom did not request toys or things for the kids to play with. She was concerned about helping educate her kids. We decided to purchase a new computer for this family. We thought the computer could help the kids with homework, gain access to the internet (library, dictionary & thesaurus) as well as give them some fun but educational games to play.

Christmas day was very rewarding for both Debra and Orne as they delivered the gifts to the family. Watching the kids open the gifts was a joy. The smiles on their faces said it all. We know this gift will also be beneficial to the mom. This family gift may just be the tool that opens the door to her next employer. It is such a joy to give back to the community.

A special Thank You to Mr. Fred Hopkins, Orne’s husband for availing himself on Christmas day to help deliver the gift to this family.