Blue Cross Employees Give Warmth and Food this Holiday Season
Jessica Iloff
| 2 min read
Agencies in communities across the state will receive a wealth of items collected for winter days ahead. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network and the UAW coordinated this year’s food and warm weather clothing drives at Blue Cross facilities. “I am so pleased and excited to share that Blue Cross employees opened their hearts to those individuals in great need for the soon-to-come colder days. This is just another great example of how the BCBSM enterprise joins together to provide for all our communities in need,” said Jessica Iloff, manager, Community Responsibility. Here are the results of our efforts:
- The One-Day Coat Drive held the first week of November provided almost 900 total coats to those without.
- Employees donated more than 4,000 cold-weather clothing items that will be distributed to individuals in need by community nonprofit organizations across Michigan. Iloff said this was a 40 percent increase from 2015.
- Non-perishable food collection was at an all-time high in 2016 with Iloff reporting an increase of more than 20 percent from 2015. Collection barrels needed to be emptied frequently throughout the drive so more donations could be made.
- “Many departments and buildings created friendly competitions that also drove these all-time-high collection results,” Iloff said. One department in the Renaissance Center collected close to 4,000 items and another from the Tower collected more than 2,000 items.
In addition, employees along with their friends and families volunteered with Meals on Wheels during the holidays, and other employees hand painted soup bowls for a soup kitchen that distributes the bowls for use at an annual fundraising event. See below for more photos from facilities around the state: [gallery ids="16671,16672,16673,16674,16675,16676,16677,16678,16679"] If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in reading:
