By Patty Garcia-Likens, SRP
Many of the nation’s military will be spending the holidays away from home while stationed at bases across the globe and stateside. That’s why SRPVets (an employee interest group at Salt River Project) will be distributing thousands of cookies to our dedicated men and women who are currently stationed away from home.
Jon Beauregard, Regional Warehousing Manger – East, and the current Chairman of SRPVets along with SRPVets members organized this year’s cookie drive. He and the volunteers collected more than 476 dozen homemade cookies from SRP employees, friends, families and others, and packed them in shipping boxes. Included in each box were handwritten holiday and thank you cards from the employees and others along with handwritten thank you letters from many of the students at Challenger Basic School in Gilbert. The boxes will be distributed to soldiers identified by SRP employees. Each soldier will receive 14 dozen cookies to share with his or her fellow soldiers or with people they meet who live near the base.
Tammy Lienhart, the owner of PC Links, a unique IT solutions company based in Tempe, assisted SRPVets in this packing process and then completed the final step by taking all 34 shipping boxes to the post office so they can reach the soldiers before the holidays.
“My mom started this many years ago so that every soldier would have a treat for the holidays. From there it has grown into a great opportunity for my company, friends, and our partner, SRPVets, to give back to our soldiers for their service,” Lienhart said.
So what’s the most common cookie volunteers bake? Decorated, frosted sugar cookies, of course.
SRPVets also collected more than $360 to help pay for postage. PC Links covers the remaining costs as well as providing most of the supplies needed, such as aluminum foil and packing tape.
SRPVets is an SRP Employee Interest Group. These EIGs are self-organized, voluntary groups of employees who share the same interests, and personal or professional backgrounds. The groups meet to network, socialize and often take on civic and volunteer projects.
The SRPVets work to foster and enhance the leadership culture at SRP by actively promoting the understanding of military/service culture as well as to develop and support the professional growth of its members.
