Angel Tree at Georgia-Pacific, Dixie Operations
Dixie Darlington Angel Tree Project participants awaiting the Salvation Army truck included: Denise Anderson, Debra Bellamy, Donna Brown, Gail Cowick, George Ervin, Jeannine Hunter, LaKiesha Jeffery (Not in Photo), Justin Johnston, Synora Manning (Consultant), Angel Toney (Angel Tree Project Leader), Lauwana Wilson, and Melvin Woodberry. Photo by Jana E. Pye
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Nineteen children will have a very merry Christmas thanks to the Angel Tree requests donated by employees of the Georgia-Pacific, Dixie Operations in Darlington.
Several members of the Angel Tree committee filled the main lobby while they anxiously awaited the Salvation Army truck to load in the many Christmas gifts purchased on Thursday Dec. 17.
Lauwana Wilson, HR Generalist for Dixie, wore a Santa’s cap and beamed with pride at the overflowing pile of gifts.
“This project really brought us all together,” said Wilson. “Our community is important to us, not only do we enjoy living here, we also enjoy helping others. We chose three families from the Salvation Army list- since we are across three different campuses, this was great for us to organize our efforts.”
The Dixie facility employs 375 hourly employees and 40 salaried employees within the three buildings on campus.
“We raised money and purchased gifts for six kids in cups, six kids in distribution and seven kids in press ware – a total of 19 children that ranged from request for something as small as a ball, to something as long as an iPad, nail polish, dolls, shoes and clothes. One of the little boys wanted wrestling figurine. We all pulled together to make this a special day.”
As helpers loaded the truck, Wilson continued: “A lot of neat individual stories of our employees that participated in our Angel Tree project. One of our employees looked at the angel that he wanted to adopt that she asked for a Mickey Mouse watch. He found one online and ordered, and was hesitant and nervous it would not arrive before the truck came to pick up the gifts, on Monday he was all excited and dropped it off and said, ‘We made the truck! We made the truck! We’ll have a happy little girl for Christmas.
The team Angel, Sonora and Gail all decided to do something for our community.
One of the donations included gift certificates from the Cast Iron Waffle in Florence for each of the three families to enjoy a nice big meal.
“We’d like to continue this next year. It was very fulfilling to all of us here at Dixie. Christmas is all about giving, and we are really glad we could participate.”
Earlier this fall, the Darlington City Police and Fire Departments were both presented with charitable contributions from the Georgia Pacific Foundation by members of the team working at the Dixie®-Darlington location.
The Foundation states, “The donations are a tangible demonstration of Georgia-Pacific’s way to improve the communities in which their employees live and work. The Georgia-Pacific Foundation works with thousands of outstanding community-based programs, service projects and disaster relief efforts, focusing their investment in four areas they believe make the most impact: Education, Environment, Enrichment and Entrepreneurship.”
