2008.12.02
Community Christmas Store still needs more donations
Want to give a gift to help your community? The Community Christmas Store will be receiving donations at an open house this Saturday, Dec. 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. during Ye Olde Salem Christmas. Items needed: new household items and toys, new or gently used bicycles, and non-perishable foodstuffs.
If you'd like to donate a bike and can't make it out on Saturday, Kemba Credit Union in Salem is also holding a company bike drive this week (now through Dec. 5,) and you can drop yours off there, too.
This year's CCS will be held in the former A&N store at Spartan Square. A ribboncutting celebration will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11. Tours of the unopened store will last until 8:30 p.m., and families will take home the items they need Dec. 12-13.
The Community Christmas Store started in 1993 to help impoverished families in a dignified way. Rather than just giving needy folks boxes of pre-packaged goods, they let individual families choose the donations they prefer. Each child in the program gets a new outfit, a new coat, a few great toys (the Marines sponsor the Mud Run for Toys for Tots). Their family gets a certain number of household items and gifts, and a ready-to-make Christmas dinner comes packaged and proportioned for the number of family members. The store serves Salem, Roanoke, Vinton, and Roanoke and Craig counties.
