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UAW 1714 gives away food, toys for holidays
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
Two hundred fifty boxes filled with food lined tables inside the United Auto Workers Local 1714 union hall.
Inside the boxes were items needed for a holiday feast and then some totaling $50 per box.
As the recipients came into the union hall, union members quickly attended to them and loaded the boxes into their cars with a jovial holiday spirit.
“It’s going to help a lot,” Elizabeth Murray of Newton Falls said.
Elizabeth’s husband, Dale, works at the General Motors Lordstown Plant, where the UAW 1714 represents 1,400 workers. In January, Dale will be one of 1,202 hourly workers laid off when the third shift ends at the plant.
GM announced the shift cut in November because of a drop in consumer demand for small cars, like the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze.
Dale’s team leader at the plant recommended he get a box of food from the union to help his family out during this time of need. His wife and their 1-year-old son came to collect the box of goodies at the union hall Friday.
“Some of it will help with dinners on a daily basis,” Elizabeth said.
In January, the Murrays will welcome a baby girl to the family.
“It’s great that they help out in the community,” Dale said of the Local 1714.
Helping out in the community is something the union has done for decades, union President Robert Morales said.
“It allows us to have an opportunity to make people feel better,” Morales said.
The UAW 1714’s Community Service Committee raises the funds all year to purchase food for the boxes and toys to give away to area organizations. The union also fulfills the leftover wishes made on giving trees inside the plant.
Those given a box of food are recommended to the union by plant workers.
This year, $5,500 in toys were purchased for four area organizations – Needle’s Eye Christian Life Center in Youngstown, Mahoning County Children Services, Trumbull County Children Services and the Warren Family Mission.
“The kids will be very grateful because it was such a variety of toys ... bags and bags of toys for girls and boys,” said Emaline Smith, director of Needle’s Eye. “It will make their Christmas what it should be.”
The toys given to Needle’s Eye will go to the Good News Club, a program for children and young adults that helps them learn to live a life without drugs and alcohol.
Donations like the one the UAW 1714 gave to Needle’s Eye are important because the only funds it receives are through the church and other outside organizations.
“We couldn’t be an organization if these organizations didn’t help us,” Smith said.
Mike Holub, UAW 1714 member, recently joined Local 1714’s Community Service Committee and this was his first fundraiser.
He remembered the emotion at Needle’s Eye when committee members dropped off the toys.
“You know those kids don’t have much,” he said.
Holub helped load boxes into vehicles with Jim McGowan, another committee member.
“I think it’s important for us to do community service because we have been blessed with good jobs, and it’s good to take care of the needy in our community,” Holub said.