Christian Help

12/24/2015 (Permalink)

-Contributed By Scott Tracy

One of my “close-to-my-heart” charities I work with is Christian Help here in Casselberry Florida. I first got to know them through my Church Northland. I noticed in the lobby that they had a big box marked “Food Pantry”. Obviously this was to collect donations from the congregation. I also noted in Northland’s bulletin that they were not only asking for food donations but also asked for volunteer’s to deliver this food to Christian Help down the road. I thought this would be a great volunteer opportunity to do with my young boys at the time, something we could do together.

 After delivering our first food collection to Christian Help, I was able to understand the full spectrum of what Christian Help did for the community. Not only did they provide groceries to families in need, they also provided employment training and help to those that were unemployed or under-employed. Over the years I maintained my relationship with Christian Help mostly with donations and Christmas gifts for kids in December.

 Once my company opened up the Construction Division, we realized that we could also help in this area. To be frank, Christian Help poured most of their money into charity, food, and people. One of the consequences of doing this was an office building and warehouse in great need of maintenance, repairs, and improvements. I decided to do a walkthrough of both, and as expected, the office staff, while appreciative of the offer to improve their work areas, asked instead that I focus on the warehouse/food pantry area that serves the public.

 We were honored to address some much needed help with putting up new walls, improving the public waiting area, and expanding their storage area. It has been a wonderful thing for us here at SERVPRO but also for the subcontractors that came in at our instruction. The next step will be donating brand new mobile stainless steel storage racks for their food bins. This will happen after the first of the year.

 The staff at Christian Help has been great and appreciative. They indicated that many people and companies have stopped by over the years promising help, but only a small percentage have actually followed through with the verbal commitment. Since Christian Help is less than a mile away from our office, it is a daily reminder to us of the less fortunate and I look forward to a long relationship with this worthy organization. Next year……we start looking at the front office and their needs.