A season for sharing

When Unifi Human Resource Manager Roy Gibson saw the Salvation Army truck backing up to the Madison plant’s main entrance Wednesday, his first thought was that the drivers might need to make two trips.

“I’m not sure that truck’s going to hold all of this,” Gibson said.

Hundreds of gifts, including 20 bicycles, surrounded a Christmas tree sitting against one wall of the plant’s long entrance hallway. Salvation Army Angel Tree tags attached to bundles filled with toys and clothes identified which child would receive the gifts.

Employees at the Madison plant began taking part in the Angel Tree program about eight years ago, but this year marked a sizable increase in that participation.

“I called the Salvation Army office to request our usual 50 names and got quite a surprise,” said administrative assistant Mary Jane Barrow. “There was someone new taking the call and they evidently thought I meant 50 families.”

Barrow received Angel Tree requests for 121 children.

“I honestly didn’t think we could possibly take care of anywhere near that amount,” she said. “But we ended up taking care of 110 of them.”

The Reidsville plant participated for the first time this year, taking 40 of the names. The Madison employees did the remaining 70.

Barrow said they returned 13 names to Salvation Army, but ended up asking for two them back.

“We had enough left over from cash donations to do two more children,” she said.

Gibson said he was proud of the generosity demonstrated by the Unifi employees.

“We have a lot of benevolent people working here,” Gibson said. “We all know how fortunate we are to be working during such a tough economic climate and want to do what we can to help those less fortunate.”

Each Angel Tree request listed a child by first name, giving their age, gender and some items they had on their wish list. The Unifi employees filled the requests in a variety of ways. Some took one or more names, some departments joined together to fulfill the wishes of several children. Some employees gave cash donations and Barrow and other employees used those funds to go buy requested items from the Angel Tree requests.

“That’s one of the things I really love about doing this every year,” Barrow said. “I love to go shopping to make those wish lists come true for some children that might not otherwise get anything.”

Barrow said she never had to go looking for people to help with the project. People were coming by her office to find out if she had the lists yet even before she made the call to Salvation Army.

“We’ve got a lot of people that do this every year and look forward to it as much as I do,” she said.

Gibson said fulfilling those lists were what the project was all about for Unifi employees.

“It’s not about what we’ve done,” he said. “It’s about the children. It’s about making sure that there’s something under the Christmas tree for some boys and girls in families that have been struggling. It’s simply realizing we can do something to help our neighbors. That’s the Christmas spirit.”

With the help of Gibson, Barrow and several other Unifi employees, the Salvation Army truck drivers managed to get every box, package and bicycle on the truck Wednesday afternoon. But it was a very full truck.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to get it all in and still close the door,” Gibson said. “I just wish I could be there on Christmas day to see all those faces when the open their presents. That’s what this is all about – the children.”