At our core, Fairway’s mission is to help people do better in life. We have always had a passion for community outreach and finding ways to get involved! Our most recent opportunity has been at the Salvation Army – Center of Hope.
The Center of Hope is an emergency shelter for women and children in the Charlotte metro area. They provide three warm meals a day, health care, child care, and case management services. All of these services give refuge to those women and children who are in critical need of it. It also allows them to get back on their feet until they can find stability.
What Happened
During the month of May we hosted a donation drive at our Weddington and Blakeney office locations. This drive was to collect personal hygiene items, toiletries, and other daily items that were needed at the center. These items help supply the women and families with the essential items needed to feel at home at the center.
We were very excited to collect over 100 individual items for the center. At the end of the month we took a trip down to the location and dropped all of these items off. The most impactful part was a Center of Hope volunteer saying, “You have no idea how much this is going to help us.” We knew that we wanted to continue to help and asked how we could volunteer moving forward.
Below is a photo of some of the items we collected.
This past month in June, we held two volunteer opportunities at the center! We returned to help serve lunches to the residents. When we arrived on June 23rd, we dropped off a few more donation items we had in our offices and got to work! We helped prepare chicken salad, fresh peaches, and desserts to over 100 residents and brought big smiles to many faces!
We had music playing and there was even some dancing going on in the line. Our kitchen leader, Ms. Pam, sure knew how to bring some joy into the cafeteria. After lunch, we helped break down boxes and unload from the morning food delivery. Ms. Pam was happy to have us join, stating, “We love volunteers! We hope y’all are going to come back and make sure I am here”.
The next week, we returned to the center and brought a group of five ready to help! We helped prepare tacos and a tray full of assorted sweets! This sure seemed to be a crowd favorite to everyone in line. We had a great group of volunteers and we had a blast! Ms. Pam and Jasmine, another regular volunteer, were glad to see the Fairway crew back to serve. We served over 100 people again and had smiles all around!
Final Thoughts
The Fairway family is looking forward to continuing to support the Center of Hope. We have more ideas for future drives and volunteer opportunities for the team. It is such a great opportunity to share some smiles and make a difference in someone’s day, even if it is only for a couple of hours. We are excited to have many of our team members share this passion for community outreach.
