Washington-Based Employees Spread Holiday Cheer
Boeing's more than
68,000 Puget Sound area employees have opened their hearts and
wallets to provide more than a little Spirit of the Holidays for
thousands of people in need, including seniors and families.
Boeing's Washington-based employees, primarily through the
Employees Community Fund of Puget Sound, have voluntarily
participated in several employee-driven food and gift drives
designed to help disadvantaged seniors and families during the
holidays, including children who are cared for under the auspices
of the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).
The "Spirit of the Holidays" combines three different employee
volunteer drives -- Adopt-A-Family, Child's Delight, and Adopt-A
Stocking. Each program works to help people in the community who
might not otherwise receive gifts or special meals during the
holiday season.
Bob Watt, Boeing vice president of Government Relations and
Global Corporate Citizenship, said the seniors and families who
received the benefits were referred by local nonprofit groups that
are helping them improve their situations.
"The Boeing Company's Puget Sound-based employee volunteers are
well-known for giving generously of themselves during the holiday
season and throughout the year," Watt said. "In 2005, Boeing
provided more than $45 million dollars of support to nonprofits in
the state of Washington -- through our corporate giving, employees,
and retirees. At Boeing, we're in the business of bringing people
together. I'm truly proud of our employees because they are
actively committed to improving the quality of life for everyone in
Washington."
Boeing's Child's Delight
program allowed Boeing Puget Sound employees to provide gifts for
2,964 children currently in the DSHS system. Boeing's
Adopt-A-Family program employee volunteers provided gifts and food
for 628 local families, including 936 adults, 1,689 children and
801 low-income seniors. The Adopt-A-Stocking program let employee
volunteers fill more than 7,000 stockings with gifts for children,
adults and seniors.
Boeing employees took part individually or in groups to shop for
holiday gifts, often getting together to wrap gifts during lunch or
after work.
During the company's annual regional Food & Essentials Drive
held in the fall, Boeing Puget Sound employees also donated 70,860
pounds of food -- or the equivalent of 480,094 meals -- that fed
the hungry in local communities. Employees also gave generously
online by donating $42,473. The donations went to food banks
throughout western Washington supported by Food Lifeline, Emergency
Food Network and Northwest Harvest.
In Tacoma, the Emergency Food Network leveraged the more than
$8,700 in employee donations, which allowed the agency to
distribute 83,200 meals to the tables of hungry children and
families in Pierce County.
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