Thanks
Thank you Juneau for your generosity
The Society of St Vincent de Paul, Juneau, would like to thank all who helped with our annual Thanksgiving Day Food Basket program. This year we received generous donations of food and money from many donors and received numerous hours from delivery volunteers who went two by two to homes delivering over 400 baskets on Saturday, Nov. 21. Overall St. Vincent’s delivered 489 food baskets which fed over 1,700 individuals this Thanksgiving.
This could not have been possible without many generous donors, volunteers, and businesses. With COVID restrictions limiting the number of people sorting the food, Zach Gordon Youth Center put three days of work into creating 450 baskets of food. Several of the youth had spent time growing up in our Teal Street Shelter, and it was rewarding to see them giving back to our community. Over 80 community volunteers gave up parts of their Saturday to deliver baskets throughout Juneau, and fortunately the predicted winter storm never affected our deliveries.
We’d also like to thank the staff at Super Bear, Safeway including the bakery, Costco and Fred Meyers who helped us buy food using donated funds. Several store workers went out of the way to make sure we had enough pies and meat for distribution. Generous donations meant no basket lacked food, and we were able to meet all requests through Wednesday afternoon. Alaska Marine Lines donated a container van to pick up and store food overnight. Zach Gordon assisted further with deliveries during the week before Thanksgiving. With the help of all these generous people we hopefully helped those in need to celebrate a great American holiday.
Thanks to all who helped with this program.
Dave Ringle,
General Manager for Society of St Vincent de Paul, Juneau
Thank you for making my week
This Thanksgiving week, I was making my last run to the store and as usual ended up choosing the slowest checkout line. I was two people behind an elderly Native couple, who seemed to be having problems finding a working credit card to pay for their full load of goods. Because I was socially distant I did not hear the exchange between them and the cashier but I watched this couple collapse on a nearby bench when the cashier picked up the phone to apparently call the manager. Then the thirty-something, nice looking man passed over his credit card. The cashier ran it and handed the receipt to the young man, who then went over and handed it to the distressed couple. They looked up stunned and amazed. I asked out loud, “Did you just pay for their groceries?” Yes. “Do you know them?” No, he replies. I then declare. “What a wonderful random act of kindness. I clapped in appreciation and so did the cashier. As the young man departed, I told him, “You just made my day.” I really meant to say, “You just made my Thanksgiving week.”
I am so thankful to live in a community where these random acts of kindness occur.
Kate Troll,
