Hello! My name is Katie Bush. I am the new special events coordinator here at Union Mission. Now that we are out of the busy holiday season, I wanted to say thank you so much to our wonderful volunteers, donors, and staff for all of YOUR help! We could not have helped as many people without you!
My first event here was the Coat Drive/Giveaway. Our donors went above and beyond our expectations! We were amazed by how many coats were donated (900+ coats!). There were many groups of volunteers helping me organize the coats and get them ready to be picked out using our procedures of making sure the coats are ready to be picked. Many West Virginians received a warm coat to keep them warm during the frigid winter we have had. All of our recovery clients and men at the Union Mission Men’s Shelter got to pick out a coat as well.
Our big fundraising event (and our most famous one!) is our Drumstick Dash. I am so thankful for each of the volunteers and staff that helped me
plan and make this event so successful. I am very thankful for our sponsors, who helped fund and spread the word about the event. We had over seven hundred runners this year, with many donating nonperishable food & canned food. This event raised quite a bit of money for the programs here at Union Mission!
Adopt-A-Family went amazing as well! With the help of many donors and sponsors, we were able to distribute wrapped gifts to forty-four families,
including our recovery clients! I had amazing volunteer help every day during the sign-ups. Several volunteers helped me keep up with applications over the phone, and one helped me with many different secretarial tasks during this program and Christmas Shop.
These wrapped gifts were not just toys. The sponsors included clothing for the family and household items (cleaning supplies, etc.) to help make life a little easier and better for the families. One of the things that really made me in awe, was when one of the sponsors made sure to buy a bike for each of the kids in this one family that had 5-6 children!
The “adopted” families were so thankful. So many of them were in tears from amazement and joy (including me). So many of them also said it would not have been a Christmas without anything under the tree for their kids if not for this program, which comes back to how amazing you are! Thank you so much for what you do!
Christmas Shop! I have never seen so many toys before in one place! 120 families received unwrapped gifts and stocking stuffers to give their kids on
Christmas morning. I had so many volunteers helping out with sorting, organizing, inventorying, etc. At least two people got saved at the church
service prior to them getting to pick out the gifts for their kids!
Thank you so much for what each and every one of you do. I am so excited for 2022’s special events and what God will do to provide for people! Would you be interested in helping with organizing and planning for any of these events in 2022 by becoming a part of our Special Events Planning Team? Please feel free to call me at 304-925-0366 ext. 142. Stay tuned for 2022’s events!
