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GM Lordstown employees donate to Salvation Army
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
A fuzzy brown teddy bear sat ready to make its way under a tree for a little boy or girl.
With its brown nose, slight smile and puffed-out belly, the bear will become more than just a gift when it meets its owner.
It will become a sign of the goodness that still remains in the world.
On Tuesday, hundreds of toys were shipped from the Lordstown General Motors Assembly Plant paint shop to the Salvation Army, where they then will be distributed to girls and boys in Mahoning County.
This is the 13th year that paint-shop employees, members of United Auto Workers Local 1112, have given toys and a monetary donation to the local Salvation Army.
“You make things happen in our community,” said Maj. Elijah Kahn, area service coordinator for the Salvation Army of Mahoning County. “You are agents of change. I want to thank you for this. [The children] will wake up with smiles on their faces.”
Thirteen bikes lined the front of an assortment of toys from basketballs to bracelet kits inside the paint-shop lunchroom Tuesday. In just a few weeks, workers at the plant hustled to make sure every toy wish was granted, and then some.
“They give us angel tags, and the tags have a name, age and gender,” said Tina Caperelli, paint planner who helped coordinate the gift-giving program.
“I know that every package I see is a smile on a child’s face. That’s what it means to me. It makes me happy,” she added.
The gifts will go toward answering Christmas wishes for about 2,200 children in Mahoning County.
“It’s heartwarming,” Kahn said. “It tells you there are people who truly care about their neighbors, and the United Auto Workers union does.”
A donation of $5,600 also was given to the Salvation Army.
“It’s a very humbling experience for us,” said Steve Notar Donato, GM Lordstown plant manager. “It’s a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work. We are proud to be a part of this.”
Some of the Lordstown paint-shop employees have participated in the program since its inception.
Tom Kettering, a GM Lordstown employee for 45 1/2 years, is one of those employees.
“This year I just went and bought a bunch of toys and let everyone else take names,” Kettering said. “You don’t have to encourage everyone here. They do it on their own.”