120 Thanksgiving Workers Given Care Packages

Last year, we did our first act of kindness to Thanksgiving workers and blessed 50 people with thank you cards containing 2-dollar bills. For this year's Thanksgiving outreach to workers, we increased our goal to 150 people and included the card/2-dollar bill in a decorated care package that also contained candy and baked goods. As much as we wanted to pass out all 150 Thanksgiving care packages, we were only able to giveaway 120, which by all accounts, isn't too shabby.

One practical lesson here is that, for our method of simply driving around and seeing what's open, 120 is the maximum number of gifts that a team of two can distribute in a four hour time period. If we had planned our route more in advance, or had a second team, then we might have been able to accomplish our goal of 150. Regardless, 120 acts of kindness in one evening is something to be proud of, and as a bonus, the thirty extra bags of goodies and money won't go to waste because we plan on going out and doing this again in the near future, and we can use the unused Thanksgiving cards for next year.

Onto this year's Thanksgiving act of kindness adventure. After a delicious meal with friends and family, we added the final touches to the care packages by; adding chocolates and baked goods to the bags, putting money into the thank you cards, and then loading all 150 bags into the car. It was a pretty involved process that made cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner look easy. Even though it took awhile to bag up everything, we had fun and it looks like we've got ourselves a new post-Thanksgiving meal tradition.

With the backseat overflowing with care packages, me and my visiting mother put on Santa hats and headed down River St. to our first destination, Sears.

• Sears: It was 6:30 pm and we knew that Sears had just started their Thanksgiving sale. In their newly remodeled store, many workers were at a station in the middle of the store. We introduced ourselves to one of worker, gave her a care package, and because the other workers appeared busy, we asked her how many workers they had on staff that night. We then left her with the appropriate number of bags. While we were passing out the bags, the store manager came out and seemed appreciative of our efforts. This was a big sigh of relief because whenever we do outreaches like this, we halfway expect to get told to leave by store management. Over the course of the night, our fear was proven false by multiple managers. 
• Hampton Inn: This was a quick and easy stop and we blessed one night manager. 
• Stewart's: There were two employees working at Stewart's. One seemed touched by the AoK and the other remembered us from last year and shook my hand.
• Country Store: A young lady was working the counter. We put a big smile on her face.
• PC Pro Solution Inc: A multigenerational family was working the store with two small boys playing with toys on the showroom floor. We gave two bags to a man that appeared to be the grandfather and told him that the children would enjoy the candy.
• Hess Gas Station Main Street: We showed up during a shift change and were able to bless employees from both shifts.
• Dunkin Donuts Main Street: The two employees seemed very appreciative and the manager gave us both a cup of coffee.
• A O Fox Hospital Nursing Home: We followed a middle-aged couple into the nursing home, it turns out that they were visiting their daughter who had to work on Thanksgiving. The daughter oversaw the wing. She informed us that there were six workers on shift that night in her wing so we left her with six care packages.
• Holiday Inn: We gave two bags to a very friendly and appreciative lady at the front desk.
• Office Max: We first approached two employees outside on a smoke break. One knew me by name and was super excited that his bag had pictures of ducks on it. Inside the store, we met up with a manager that pointed us in the direction of all the employees. Additionally, we were able to giveaway care packages during an employee meeting. Before we left, we gave packages to employees at the cash registers, and one cashier said that she'd like to visit our church. Office Max was a very positive experience.
• JCPenny: One of the first people that we ran into was the store manager as he was passing out candy canes to customers. He seemed genuinely appreciative of what we were doing and he even remembered hearing about us passing out thank you cards in his store last year. He told us to make sure that every one of his employees gets a care package. We proceeded to follow his orders and track down workers from all corners of the store. As we were about to leave, a supervisor approached us and told us that, "The girls in jewelry want to see us" (we forgot about them). We paid them a visit and they smiled extra big when they saw the 2-dollar bills. 
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Dick's was yet another example of finding favor with store management. After giving care packages to a few employees, we encountered the store manager. We explained ourselves and had a nice chat. He also told us to give the gifts to his employees and to especially make sure that the seven cashiers up front are included because of how hard they're working. By the time we made it to the front, a manager was expecting us and helped us distribute the care packages.
• Southside Mall Cinema: Our friend Peter Elkund from Campus Ambassadors was working and we got to have a nice chat about ministry and bless him and his coworkers with care packages.
• Super 8 Motel: We got to bless a nice lady working the front desk that told us she had to work two jobs and seven days a week to make ends meet.
• Hess Gas Station Hwy. 23: The clerk on shift was trying to fix a coffee machine that had spilt coffee all over the floor. You can tell that he really needed an act of kindness and he told us that it really cheered him up and that he wants to visit our church.
• Denny's: At Denny's, we were greeted by another manager. We told him what we were doing and he seemed touched by it. He volunteered to pass out the bags to his staff and he even hooked us up with more coffee! 
• Cooperstown Medical Transport: We went across the street to another gas station and encountered two ambulance drivers heading back to their ride. I approached their vehicle and passed out a care package to them. They appreciated the gesture and shook my hand.
• Red Barrel Food Store: There were two lady's working at this gas station and they both had big smiles on their faces upon receiving the gift. There were some customers in line behind us that saw the exchange take place, and as we were leaving we overheard them comment to each other, "That's so cool."
• Courtyard Marriott: Here, two more hotel employees told us that this AoK made their night.
• NY State Trooper: We even saw a State Trooper parked on Hwy. 23 watching traffic. We pulled up alongside him and give him a care package. He thanked us and shook my hand.
• Walmart: This was the big one. We were putting off Walmart until the crowds died down, and by now it was 9:30 pm and the store was manageable to maneuver through. Walmart had extra staff on hand and they were easy to spot in their bright yellow vests. We began by approaching a group on their smoke break and they were appreciative. Next, we moved inside and passed out gifts to employees that we came across. Eventually, a manager saw us and told us that it would be better if we dropped off the care packages at customer service. As we waited in line at customer service, we assessed the situation. Seeing how busy they were, it seemed to us unreasonable to leave 50+ bags with $100 worth of cash to someone that we didn't know. We left the customer service rep. with five bags and moved on from Walmart. It's worth noting that several of the Walmart employees that we offered care packages to refused the offer because they thought it would get them in trouble. It was sad that we were unable to freely distribute the care packages to Walmart workers because there were so many of them. We could have easily passed out 100 bags and blessed a lot people. On a positive note, the half dozen Walmart workers that passed out care packages to were very appreciative of the AoK.
• McDonald's: Inside Walmart is a McDonald's. We gave their staff of three care packages. They seemed very thankful. There were also a few Walmart workers in McDonald's that just got off their shift. We made sure to give them some care packages too.
• Budget Inn: At this hotel we might have disturbed the guy who ran it/lived there, seeing at it was now past 10 pm. Still, he seemed thankful for the gift.
• Clarion Hotel: The employee running the front desk only had half an hour left until he got to go home. He seemed very thankful for the gift and told us that it made his night, and he shook my hand.
• Kwik Fill (Red Apple): There was one employee on shift and she said that the AoK really cheered her up. 
• Dunkin Donuts Chestnut Street: It was now close to 10:30 pm and we saw that Dunkin Donuts was open. We gave out two care packages and the guy working the register gave me a big thank you accompanied by a big handshake.                                 

At this point in the night, it was late and we couldn't think of a local place that was open that we hadn't already visited. We saw some plow trucks drive by and thought about the City Works department, but upon arriving at their facility, alas, nobody was there. Therefore, we called it a night and decided to save the 30 extra care packages for another outing.

And when I got home, I found myself tagged in this Facebook post :)