|
|
|
Community Embraces The Spirit of Giving
By Jenna Mattox (view profile | send e-mail)
Serving others in need is important in a close knit community, especially during the season of giving. The holiday season brings civic organizations and service facilities together to assist less fortunate community members.
 The Montgomery County Christmas store, open to shoppers in early December, is a community-wide effort to provide a shopping opportunity for low-income families in Montgomery County. The store is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that accepts donations of new or used goods from community members to be sold at the store. Many different items are accepted. Some of the most popularly donated items were children’s clothing, toys and Christmas wrapping paper and décor. The store’s location for this holiday season is 30 W. Main Street.
New River Valley Mall also provides a place for charities and volunteer organizations to set up shop. The United Way of Montgomery County, Floyd and Radford will have a booth set up in the mall December 17th and 18th to sell Santa Beacon tins. The tins will be $2 each and all the proceeds will benefit the United Way.
Other fund raisers at the mall will set up shop until Christmas. The St. Paul United Methodist Church and the Christiansburg Ministerial Association are sponsoring a Christmas wrapping booth in front of Belk. “The booth was started at the University Mall in Blacksburg and moved to the New River Valley Mall when it opened in the 80’s,” Clemmitt Sigler, a volunteer, explains. “It’s quite popular. Last year we raised around $3,500 for the needy in the community.”
The proceeds from the wrapping booth will be used to benefit the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program. “The goal of the program is this: if someone gets laid off from their job, it would take 6-8 weeks to be approved for unemployment insurance. The program serves as a gap filler to provide for the family during that crucial time,” Sigler said.
Wrapping prices range from 75 cents for a small box to $4.00 for an extra large box; less expensive than the mall’s wrapping booth prices, Sigler said. The booth, run solely on a volunteer basis, will be open during all mall hours until Christmas.
Whether it’s giving or receiving, there are many holiday options open to Blacksburg residents. The tie that binds the town is the closeness of a community and the traditions that are exclusive to a Blacksburg Christmas.
|
|
|
