2 Teamsters anonymously bring Christmas happiness to tens of thousands of St. Louis kids
“This is divine intervention.”
Colonel Ronnie Robinson, deputy chief, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, was expressing his feelings as the efforts of two dedicated rank-and-file Teamsters unfolded on a brisk Saturday morning Dec. 3 when dozens of volunteers loaded over 100,000 new toys and games, assorted Christmas items and clothing of all types into police cars, vans, flatbed trucks and church busses to be distributed by police, fire fighters and church groups on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to families whose children otherwise would never have Christmas.
“We just want smiles on kid’s faces at Christmas,” said Teamsters Local 600’s Roy Gillespie, who along with his friend and co-organizer, Teamsters 600 member Mike Koeller (a minister in the Leap of Faith Church in Maryland Heights), have been coordinating this particular incredible Christmas effort for the past four years. And all with the blessing of Teamsters Joint Council 13 whose other locals provide part of the volunteer manpower to make this happen.
You had to be there to see it, to believe that something like this is possible. Oh, yes, many groups gather money and toys for underprivileged and needy children for Christmas. But nothing on this scale.
http://labortribune.com/2-teamsters-anonymously-bring-christmas-happiness-to-tens-of-thousands-of-st-louis-kids/
