PC Dem Club President John Moore and Vice President Chuck Veltri display the mock check reflecting the club’s contribution to the Agua Fria Angel Tree project.
Alisa Moore
At the beginning of 2020, the PebbleCreek Democratic Club adopted Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank as their community benefits project. All year, members have been contributing food and clothing. When Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around, the club kicked their giving up several notches.
Between Nov. 19 and 23, club members Judy Hart and Frankie Veltri collected and delivered a grand total of 673 pounds of turkey (more than 40 turkeys), additional holiday foods, and money totaling $1,245. A local church will match their cash donations this season, so they will receive a total of $2,490 from the PC Dem Club drive. In addition, the day before the club began the campaign, Frankie and Judy delivered $650 to the food bank!
At the beginning of December, the club, through Judy and Frankie, initiated a drive to support Agua Fria’s Angel Tree, which provides 900 children with gifts to meet the children’s requests as closely as possible. As of this article, more than $6,500 has been collected and delivered, and they expect to top $7,000 by the end of the campaign.
The drive ends early in the month because the Agua Fria volunteer shoppers hit the stores in the evenings after the funds are collected. Agua Fria needs to have all the presents purchased by the 11th because then all the gifts have to move on to the next step—the wrapping. Finally, the wrapped presents are off to mapping (where they figure out who lives where) and distribution!
As Judy said, “We are just a small part of the holiday toy business. Can you imagine what Santa has to deal with?!”
So, the PebbleCreek Democrats donated almost $9,000 directly to the families assisted by Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank, a chance for the additional $1,245 match, and hundreds of pounds of turkey and other holiday fixings. Agua Fria relies heavily on the kindness of communities like ours, and it is heartwarming to see how many members have come through this whole challenging year.