INNISFAIL – Johns Manville continues to share the Christmas spirit.
For many years employees at the local plant have raised donations for the Innisfail Christmas Bureau and the Innisfail and District Food Bank.
Johns Manville matched the donations again this year by doubling the total amount.
“This year the employees donated about $4,645 of which the company matched,” said Cameron Beaton, training and development manager “We also collect our scrap steel throughout the year and take it in for recycling. In all, that totalled $16,190.”
That amount was split between the two organizations and a total of $12, 690 went to the Christmas Bureau and $3,500 went to the food bank.
“We just like to give back to the community,” he said.
Norma Hoppins, donations chair with the Christmas Bureau, was thrilled with the donations.
“They are very, very generous. It seems every year it’s a bit higher and we’re really grateful,” said Hoppins. “They’re a real backbone to the bureau, along with other generous people from our community.
“We know we can count on Johns Manville year after year.”
Brenda Hand, co-coordinator with the food bank, said the donations go a long way at Christmas.
“Johns Manville is a very generous corporation and we really appreciate their longtime, ongoing support,” said Hand.
That generosity will extend to its 3rd annual Christmas Dinner at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion on Dec. 19.
The turkey dinner with all the trimmings runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
“I think we all feel pretty fortunate that we have the jobs that we do and we work for the company that we do so because we are fortunate, we like to try and spread that around,” said Beaton.
In previous years they served about 500 people and expect to feed as many this year.
Employees volunteer, help prepare and serve the turkey dinner and clean up afterwards.
Other contributors for the Christmas dinner include Innisfail Family Dental, which supplies goody bags for the kids, the Henday Learning Centre which donates books for kids to take home, and several students from the Innisfail High School leadership group who assist with the event.
Tickets are $10 per person or $20 per family or by a food bank donation at the door, the night of the Christmas dinner.
